Wednesday, June 30, 2010

I wasn't feeling too hot today.  It's tempting to sit around and feel sorry for myself, but honestly, this guy just turns my frowns upside down.

And we haven't had an accident inside all day.  

(Yep, I'm that girl that gets excited about my puppy's poop schedule)

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

We pooped and peed on command today.  

Yep.  Thankful for that.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

There are going to be a lot of pictures today.  Bear with me.


A year ago today, I went to the Seattle Gay Pride Parade with a couple of friends, and that day set into play a course of events that changed my life.  I find all of that very amusing and quite delightful.  For that reason, as long as I have the opportunity, I'm going to go and watch this fun little parade full of people celebrating life and happiness.  

Here are some of the shots from today's festivities:

Oh the Wells Fargo Wagon is a comin'...out?

After the parade this morning, Brian and I went back down to Portland to visit Daijo.  There were a lot of families there  for visitation - one litter was ready to go home a week ago, Daijo's litter is ready this Friday.  Everyone is trying to get in some puppy-time. I'm going to be honest here, I didn't even touch my camera while we were there.  The pics below are courtesy of Brian.

We stayed for a couple of hours and enjoyed the puppy orgy.  Not really much to report, I guess, Daijo is still beautiful, still has a great personality, we can't wait to pick him up on Friday, we decided to get a second puppy...

Ummm...

Yeah...

Don't really know what to say about that.

Meet Venn:

He has the same sire as Daijo, but a different Dam.  He was born on April 26th, about two weeks before Daijo, which means, we went ahead and took him home.  Oh my...

Yes, I know.  Two puppies.  And we thought one was going to change our lives - hah!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

A photo-journey through Heather's Day:

First I got to stare at Mount Rainier all the way to work...

Then, my boyfriend cooked me dinner 

(in the process, using some of the cilantro that we grew together on our patio - woo hoo!)

And then we went to the rooftop patio to watch the sunset and play with our cameras.  He was capturing beautiful landscapes while I was totally distracted with the plant life.

Life could be worse. That's for sure.

I say that only because I need to.  

It's too easy to forget sometimes how good I have it, to forget that every day is full of magic and wonder.  

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Okay...today, my thankfulness is two-fold.  

I totally, 100%, without fingers crossed behind my back, accidentally broke two of my dinner plates this evening.

1. I am thankful that I did not slice off my toes (or my foot for that matter) and bleed to death while I was alone in the apartment.

2. I am thankful that now I have an excuse to replace these god-awful ugly plates I have.  

They may very well may food look less appetizing just by being set on the plate, and now I have a perfectly good reason to support some wonderful local artisan and get something wonderful.

Good enough for me.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Tri-Tip and veggies on the grill and a glass of wine on what feels like the first day Seattle has seen over 75 degrees this year...

Happy Summer, Everyone.

I think Brian's beer, even with its poor grammar, says it best....

Monday, June 21, 2010

I don't know what it is about this bridge.  Maybe it's that I've seen the video of the old bridge swaying

Maybe it's the totally creepy juxtaposition of the old bridge right next to the new.

Maybe it's that I once saw a Discovery show that explained that the one of the few places scientists actually believe that prehistoric giant squid still exist is in the Tacoma Narrows...

But every single time I make it all the way across this thing, 

I'm thankful.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

We stopped for dinner at the Olympic Club in Chehalis.  

The food was lackluster.  

The music was boring.

The service was almost depressing, but I freaking love the sink in the bathroom.

Every single one of those works, by the way.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Here is me being completely honest with you:  If you don't enjoy puppies, feel free to skip this post and I'll never bring it up. This is 100% puppy-gasm material.  

You may also want to see a professional about your obviously black, charred heart.

So, yesterday, Brian and I drove down to Portland to visit Daijo.  God love this amazing breeder who is perfectly welcoming and lets us come and hang out with our little bundle of joy for hours on end.  

The puppies were tiny and precious and beautiful and completely overwhelming.  Oh my.  There were so many of them, tripping all over each other with their perfect puppy bellies and their perfect puppy breath.  Ahhh...  

This is my own personal heaven.  Yes, I actually got in the pen with all these little goofs so they could crawl and squirm and be perfect all over me.

I promised Brian I would post this picture he took of me.  #1. Because it could be the best picture that's been taken of me in years and #2. Because you can see how dang happy being surrounded by puppies makes me.

Anyhow, onto the fun stuff, the real reason we went there.  Daijo.  Here's the thing, though, I don't really have a lot to say about it. He's perfect.  I was kind of worried about how his temperament would shape out - we picked him out before his personality had really started to manifest, so we were both anxious to see how he was developing, but I couldn't ask for anything more. 

This is what we could tell by spending some time with him:  He is completely laid back.  He was perfectly content to sleep in our laps the whole time while his brothers and sisters ran around jumping and playing.  When we put him in with the others, he was also perfectly content to jump and play.  

Oh, and he's cute.

Really, Really Cute.

Monday, June 14, 2010

So, I know I'm totally late posting pictures this week.  It's just been an insanely busy week.  And although I always have my camera with me, I'm trying not to post pictures that I haven't at least had a chance to review on my "good" computer.  My work laptop just doesn't have th screen resolution to tell me what type of pictures I'm sharing. 

ANYHOW, enough of the excuses.  Let me catch you up on last weekend.  Brian and I flew to Minnesota on Friday to be with his family as his twin nieces were baptized.  It was a crazy weekend as we packed in a dinner with Brian's friend James (and his wife Zandy) that he's known since grade school, 2 graduation parties, a "swing by" at Brian's freshman year college roommate's home where we got to experience about an hour in the lives of a couple that just welcomed their 2nd set of twins into the world.  (Can you imagine having 15 month old boys and 1 week old girls?).  That was just Friday evening and Saturday.  Sunday went to the real reason we went back for the weekend - Brian's sister Amy's twins baptism and party. 

To say that I met a lot of family would be an understatement.  But then again, a lot of family isn't exactly new to me.  

I only got my camera out once we got to the baptism party.  There was just too much going on to be the intrusive new girl with a camera all weekend.  I thought I had everything I needed when we got there, but being the brilliant gal I am, I left my flash in my suitcase.  It made finding appropriate light brutal, but I was a able to get a couple of fun shots.  

This is Emma - Brian's oldest niece.  We were lucky enough to have her join the two of us as we ran errands around town on  Saturday morning.  She's almost three and I have a hard time not laughing when she's around. 

And then there were the babies...

Clarie...

And Brielle...

This is my first real experience taking pictures of babies, so I'm sure the pictures could have been better, but oh my, they were so fun...

I love how Brielle is just kickin' it, arms behind her head...

Claire had a thing for rolling over - I loved the Black and White shot, but I couldn't resist sharing another pose with those baby blues

So, it was a packed weekend.  I'm sure that somewhere in there I should have felt nervous or overwhelmed or something, but honestly, it was just fun.  Brian's family is really wonderful and so nice to me. They make me feel so welcome and at home that it makes me miss my own family.  

I think that's probably about the best situation I could hope for.  

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Okay, so here's the deal: I'm not gonna lie.  I totally took these pictures while I was driving to Yakima.  I mean, literally, like, one eye on the road, the other trying to find a straight horizon as I held my big girl camera poised aiming out the window while flying down the road going 70 miles an hour.

But, come on.  Look at those clouds.  How could I not seize that opportunity?

And, I'm just going to say that I feel totally rectified in this.  As I sat at a stoplight later on and looked to my left, I saw a man sitting behind the steering wheel, shaving.  To my right, there was a female driver putting on mascara (complete with eyelash curler) and behind me (I kid you not) there was a man with his newspaper open 2 page-spread across his steering wheel.  The light shifted to green and, I'm sure for safety's sake, the newspaper was reduced to only a single page view over the wheel.

I'm not sure if I'm more thankful for the view I got to experience or my ability to justify anything....

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Guilty Pleasure #19: Pedicures

I know, I know, this totally makes me sound like "that girl', but I can't help it.  Pedicures are like my kryptonite.  My wallet totally loses all control when they're around.  Over the winter, in an effort to be more fiscally responsible, I gave up pedicures.  I figured that I wasn't really going to be seeing my toes for the season (you see, I also have this thing for wool socks), so I convinced myself that pedicures were going to be a seasonal activity in my life.  I'm a big girl.  I can handle it.  In fact, I haven't had a pedicure since January when I totally lucked into a girls day out with Brian's mom and sister.

Anyhow, so with a brief preview today of summer warmth, I treated myself to a pleasant little walk and a french pedicure before tackling the rest of my work for the evening.  Time well wasted.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Today, I am thankful for the IHG-mobile.  Yeah, because I have this job, I have to drive a lot, that's a given.  But, because I have a new comfortable vehicle that doesn't hurt my back to drive anymore, I can make the extra effort and come home at night.  I love all of my hotels, really, I do, but they just can't even begin to compare with the comfort of my couch.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Ah...Sunday...

Our Sunday was spent walking all over Fremont.  I love going to the Sunday Market there.  It's not exactly a "farmer's market."  There are only a couple of vendors that set up with produce, but there are a dang lot of things to see there.  It's more of an artisan's fair - or maybe more like a really elaborate garage sale.  Hmmm...a garage sale with a lot of shabby-chic furniture and junk and trash, but some really cool crafts, too...if you're willing to look for them.

I could walk around there forever.  I love the people-watching.  I love all the dogs that everyone brings there.  I love the smells of the different foods being prepared (well, except for the falafel that smelled strangely like body odor).  It's a visual smörgåsbord.  (I'd like to point out that I've never actually written out that word and it looks really odd in print)

At the risk of overloading the schmoopy factor, I'd also like to point out that the fact that my boyfriend enjoys doing things like this with me is just about the coolest thing ever.  Ever.

And then, because I live in this crazy Utopian world where everything has suddenly started just being great, (I've decided that it's the universe's way of paying me back for several years of complete nastiness) we decided to watch the sunset again, but this time from the roof of our apartment building as we ate dinner.  Yup, that's the view of the needle from here.  

Saturday, June 5, 2010

It's amusing to me how quickly I forget everything I do.  I don't know if that's a blessing or a curse.  

We packed a lot into Saturday, yet somehow, inside all the hustle and bustle, we found time to enjoy a glimpse of sunshine, too.  After a great little lunch, we walked down to the canal in Fremont and took a few minutes to watch the world float by.

I'm becoming addicted to these little stolen moments inside of my days.  I feel like I can completely manage any chaos in any given day so long as I can have just a few minutes to breathe and remember that the world doesn't really revolve around me and there is so much else happening.. (Of course, this makes it sound like I actually did something busy or involved on Saturday, and I really didn't at all.  I got to sit around and watch Brian work and be busy...which is exhausting in and of itself, so I'm going to go ahead and claim exhaustion by proxy)

We ended the night by watching the sunset over Seattle.  And having the ability to watch the sunset over this very beautiful city just makes me feel very blessed indeed.