Thursday, September 4, 2008

The Pugs

This is a tribute to the two most amazing dogs on the planet! Zoe Belle and Biance Rose. In 2006 we got a pug named Lulu. Justin gave her to me the day before our 1st wedding anniversary and a few days before our 10 year anniversary. I had always dreamed of having a pug and as Justin often tries to do, he made a dream come true for me.


We were in absolute love with her. She was our little test baby and she brought love and joy into our lives. 8 months later she started having seizures. We went to UC Davis to have a spinal tap and MRI. She had a large mass on her brain called PDE Pug Dog Encephalitis. I felt that for all the love and hope she gave to me it was the least we could do to not just give up on her. Animals can feel pain and I believe it's our duties as humans to do everything we can to take care of our pets.

It was the worst news we could have received. They told us that there was no cure and there was nothing they could do. Through research we knew that her time left would be days, weeks, or months but only one case ever made it to one year. We took her home and tried our best to give her as normal a life as possible. She enjoyed walks and playing and most of her normal activities until she quickly took a turn for the worst and died one month later.


Thousands of dollars and two broken hearts later our house felt insanely empty. We knew we needed to have another dog to love and share our lives. I know adoption is always an option but when you love a pug you never go back. Pugs are just the sweetest and most loving breed of dog I have ever encountered. I had and probably always will have a pug in my life. We looked up breeders and went to visit one in Bakersfield. http://www.pearchpugs.com/

When we got there it was something out of my dreams. There were all of these little adorable pug puppies crawling all over us. I was immediately drawn to the fawn pups because they looked like Lulu. Then I thought that maybe I should get a black one so it wouldn't seem like we were replacing Lu. Well, we ended up bringing home two! It was cool to get to keep sisters from the same litter who were already bonded to one another. A fawn pug and a black pug pup ! They helped us recover from our loss and with two little pups at once it was a new and different experience all together. With all of the sadness we felt from the loss of Lulu it makes us appreciate every single day we have with our awesome little loves. The only fault they have is that Bianca sneezes a lot and Zoe farts a lot, but other than that they make every morning fun and silly. They make us laugh all day long and they love us just as much as we adore them. I'm sure Lulu would appreciate them filling our hearts with pug love again.


The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated
Mahatma Gandhi quotes (Indian Philosopher, internationally esteemed for his doctrine of nonviolent protest, 1869-1948)

Bianca is the pug on the left and Zoe is the pug on the right.


Girls at the Santa Barbara Dog Parade and festival.



Girls at the ocean.




Zoe and her beloved toy Wubba.




Bianca found a place on top of a huge stack of blankets on our road trip to Santa Barbara.


Bianca is so obsessed with this rawhide that she once slept with it in her mouth for an entire night just so sister Zoe couldn't steal it.




Bianca lives to cuddle.


OCD Bianca with same rawhide.



Sometimes I'm worried I will actually hug her to death.



Zoe is a zen goddess.



The girls at a game of tug of war!


Rawhide...again.

Zoe has the a tongue twice the size of Bianca's.

Dad loves his girls and they love to spoon with us.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Comic-Con...finally










Our view from the 19th floor

I think my brain needed extra time to digest the awesomeness that was comic-con...
It was such a cool trip and I'm finally glad we made the pilgrimage with all of our fellow geeks to San Diego. We were checking into the San Diego Marriott Gaslamp Quarter when I realized the front desk guy looked like he had just seen a ghost. It turns out he was freaking out because Joss Whedon was checking in to the hotel and standing behind us. Joss Whedon is the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Dr.Horrible's Sing -Along Blog. He may not seem like a household name to most but he is worshiped by many a geek, including our front desk boy who was about to have a heart attack.

We were walking to the convention center Friday morning and I noticed the person standing next to me was Jeffery Dean Morgan or "Denny Duquette" to Grey's Anatomy fans. He was on his way to the Watchmen panel which people slept outside overnight in sleeping bags to get into. It was a huge shock when we walked in and saw the size of the convention center. My brain went into geek overload. We started on the retail side of the convention and I was in awe of all of the booths there were to visit. Our main reason for attending was because of the Mystery Science Theater Reunion panel happening later that evening (Justin's a HUGE fan) and anything on top of that was just extra fun. The main goal of the day for me was to see the Filmakers Panel including directors Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen), Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy) Frank Miller (Sin City), and the great Judd Apatow (40 Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad).


This was a normal scene at comic-con

This chick was awesome because she stayed in character promoting a vampire movie and if she saw you taking a picture of her she would pose and hiss at you.Iron Man rules!


Sooooooo many people...
Justin and I got toe up from the flo up for real...
This was one of those moments at comic-con where I felt my head might explode.
Pictured here from the left are directors Kevin Smith (Clerks,Chasing Amy, Mallrats), Judd Apatow (40-Year old Virgin, Superbad, Knocked Up) Zach Snyder (300, The Watchmen) Frank Miller (Sin City, The Spirit). Kevin Smith's latest films have been terrible but he is so funny and adorable in person that you just know he still has it in him to make some really cool movies, as soon as he stops putting his awful wife in his films. She walked past me before the panel and it took all I had not to trip her. J/K she's probably not a bad person I just have a hard time not thinking it is a coincidence that his movies starting being really bad as soon as he started sticking her in movies.
Here's Patton Oswalt who I recently fell even more in love with after he voiced Remy the RAT in Ratatouille . MST3K Show at the Balboa! Plan 9 From Outerspace! Too Fun! Here's Justin and I with Brian Pohsen from Mr.Show and the Sarah Silverman Show.
The next day we went to the zoo and it was awesome! I fell in love with the panda bears. They are spectacular animals.




We went to the Studio City Diner which was featured on Diners Drive-In's and Dives for a late night dinner. It was super yummy. There was also a Klingon meet-up happening and most of us in the restaurant were from comic-con. We ate our food as gigantic Klingons made their way to the potty.
Justin and I like finding cool non-chain restaurants in different cities. When the GPS listed a nearby restaurant called Brian's American Eatery we selected it and we were on our way. Well, all I can say is leave it up to me to accidently find San Diego's gay district.
Not only do I love gay men but I also love the subculture of gay bears. These are large cuddly gay men who have a Paul Bunyon type appearence. Last time we were at Disneyland it also happened to be gay Bear day, coincidence? I think not. So not only was Brian's exactly like the Liberty Diner on Queer as Folk but the food was insanely good. We sat at the counter and every single dish that passed us looked amazing and fresh. Justin pointed out a giant bear to me in the corner and I started cracking up. Then I realized our waiter was most definately of the gay bear persuasion. Leave it up to me and my GPS to find a gay, bear, diner in the city of San Diego. One thing I love about my husband is that he doesn't care at all who people choose to love but he does care a lot about really good french toast and it's those reasons that we have been together for 12 years. We have so much fun together and I wouldn't want to spend my fun times with anyone other than Justin. We both work really hard and it was nice to hang out and make fun memories together. Now, about next year's comic-con...


Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Nick

I can remember when my little guy was just a baby...Now he's 15 years old! My nephew Nick is a pure joy to me. He is smart, funny, and kind. He's a special person in my life and I am so proud of this amazing young man and so excited about all the amazing things he is going to accomplish.
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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Grown Up Girl's Book and Eating Club

Almost two years ago I was having dinner with my friends and my friend Tiffany proclaimed that she had an announcement. She basically said "We are all grown-ups now so it's time for us to do something grown-up. We are going to start a book club." I added that I would also like to maybe make it a cooking club as well. So we agreed to a book/cooking club. Most of us were immediately on board but of course there was always Jamie... Jamie said something to the effect of "No thanks." We were kind of stopped in our tracks for a second as she said " I don't like to cook and I don't like to read." She was being honest, she was being James. So we carried on anyway and Tiffany announced that our first book would be "Little Women." I was excited because I would have never chose to sit down and read "Little Women" on my own. Here's a complete list of the books we have read and my star rating with 1 being Poor and 5 being Excellent:


1.) November 2006 – Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (Tiff's pick)




5 Stars! Excellent start to our book club!

2.) December 2006 – The Idiot Girls’ Guide to Christmas by Laurie Notaro (Chris)


5 Stars!

I love Laurie Notaro. She's insanely hilarious and I tried to pick a quick read for the busy Christmas season.

3.) January 2007 – The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Stacey)





5 Stars! Still my favorite pick thus far...Thanks Stace!

4.)February 2007 – Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (Hernandez)





4 Stars! This is the book my mother wouldn't let me read when I was younger:) Beautiful Mexican food and stories.

5.) March 2007 – Wicked by Gregory McGuire (Roo)



4.5 Stars Much more dark than I imagined but a fun read nonetheless. I can't wait to see the musical.


6.) April 2007 – The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (Me)


3.5 Stars


I would have never picked this book out on my own so I'm glad my friends all have such unique taste.
7.)May 2007 – Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (Chris)
4.5 Stars
This was my pick because it has been sitting on my shelf for so long waiting to get read. I loved the historical detail and it makes me want to go back to Chicago so I can visit what remains of the World's Fair.




8.)June 2007 – 1984 by George Orwell (Stacey)


4.5 Stars This was another book that I'm glad I was asked to read because I've always meant to read it. A quick and interesting read.



9.)July/August 2007 - The Lady in the Forest (Hernandez)





Didn't read... Tiff and Marie were trying to find a book with good sex scenes and ended up with this silliness. Apparently no one knew which book to get and the only two people who did bother to find the book got 2 different books by the same author. This was not a high point for the club.


10.) September 2007 – A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie (Roo)
4.0 Stars
This was my first Agatha Christie book and I have to say I really enjoyed it once I could get all the characters straight.


11.) October/Nov 2007 – The Witching Hour by Anne Rice (Tiff)

4.5 Stars

There is a ghost named Lasher in this book and when Stacey said she'd like to meet Lasher a candle on top of Tiffany's mantle exploded and crashed to the floor. This is the absolute truth. I'm telling you we are a powerful book club...


12.)December/January (2007/2008) – Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Chris)

4.5 Stars
Quit work, get advance for book deal, travel world, eat tons of food and find inner peace. Not a bad to do list.




13.)February 2008 – Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs (Stacey)
3.0 Stars
I had already read this book but the rule is that if someone picks a book you have already read you need to read it again. I think it made us all depressed...


14.)March 2008 – Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret and Superfudge (Hernandez)
4.5 Stars It was fun to re-read old Judy Blume. I LOVE banned books.





15.)April 2008 – Atonement by Ian McEwan (Roo)
4.5 Stars
Kim felt like crying and making us all cry.


4.0


16.)May 2008 – Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult (Angela)



Lifetime Channel for girls and gays in book form:(
2.5 Stars

17.)June 2008 – Slash’s Autobiography (Me)




Stacey and I dressed up for the autobiography of Slash night. She's a 3rd grade teacher and I run an after school program by the way.
3.0 Stars
Slash is a seriously talented musician but the debauchery got old to me after a bit.


18.)July 2008 – Two for the Road by Jane and Michael Stern (Chris)


4.0 Stars
New York Times columnists set out on the road to review every restaurant in the United States. Sounds like a dream come true...