Happy New Year

Just to make you all jealous, here are the three of us on New Year's Eve.


Well, I am going to go prep my class outside!

Happy New Year!

Slackers

Hello everyone. We have been severely sucking at posting blogs. It's been 2 weeks or so since the last one. We are heeding advice from Aaron J Norris regarding the title of our blog. He believes that since, contrary to our initial wishes, our blog has become basically about our dog, the name of the blog should be CopyDog Blog. Nick and I couldn't agree more, so we are changing it.

We've been in NY for over a week now. This is how Teddy traveled to NY:
















Since we've been in NY we've made a trip to MI and back for Nick's graduation. I was so proud of him at that moment and Mary and Robert were, too.



































Teddy spent the day with the babysitter (Daniella) who took very good care of him despite his being a whiner. Teddy also got a chance to meet the Reeds' dogs and cats and thoroughly enjoyed his time at their house. He seemed to fall right in with the pack. We loved visiting with the Reeds and are looking forward to when they visit CA in March. Teddy enjoyed it the most - the dogs taught him how to go potty when the ground is covered in snow (he couldn't figure it out on his own) and Marilu got him a Christmas bandana.

Fru Fru Puppy

We took Teddy to be groomed today so he would be nice and spiffy for the holidays. But somehow they managed to not only spiff him up, but completely transform him from the scruffy puppy we adopted to this...















Even his facial expression looks posh! Here's a better look at that bow.






















Eventually it became clear that Teddy was not in the mood for photos today. I think he knew he had a bow in his hair.

Bruno and Maddie

I just stumbled across the strangest thing. The dog I grew up with was a mini schnauzer...Bruno. He was super cute and did not have his ears cropped like many schnauzers do. Now my parents have a red mini dachshund...Maddie. Tonight I hit my trusty 'Stumble' button in my web browser and up pops this picture...

Puppy Craft

So, I always think Teddy would be pretty cute in puppy clothes, but I can't justify spending money on something like that right now. Luckily I had some spare material laying around and a little sewing machine my mom had gotten for me (see, I told you I'd use it, Mom...). ;-) The craftsmanship is not great - I'm not very good at sewing, but I still think it's pretty cute on him. He needs a haircut, but he still manages to pull of the GQ look. :-)

Black Friday sucks

This morning I decided I would get up and venture into Black Friday shopping for the first and hopefully last time. You see, there was this grill I really wanted at this Home Depot-ish store. It was originally $300, but today it was $150 and you didn't have to pay tax. It was stainless steel, 4 burners, and a side burner. It had a storage cabinet below and it had good reviews online. It could even cook 30 burgers at once, which is something that I would never need to do, but still cool. I decided it was worth the trouble.

I also decided, though, that I did not want to partake in the stampede right away at 6...there is just something wrong with that I think. So, I showed up at 6:25. I figured this would be fine as it's November and I didn't think too many people would be thinking of grilling right now. Yes, it is good weather in CA all year, but people here are too wimpy to grill in 65 degree weather. Well, I was wrong. The gentleman working at the store told me they only had 9 and they all went immediately. This sucks as it meant I got up super early and drove to the store in my pajamas and it was all for nothing. Live and learn I guess. I don't foresee trying Black Friday again.

Cup of Pie Awards.

Ashley and Arron's award post inspired me to give out an award on our blog.

So, without further ado--the 2008-- douchebag award unequivocally goes to..... Kanye West.

The reason for his overwhelming landslide victory-let's see:

He thinks he will be this generations Mike Jordan of signing.

He thinks he is better (or just as good as) Elvis and the Beatles.

He stormed on stage to accept an award he did not win at the MTV music awards. That is correct. While the winners of the best video award went on stage to claim their award, he went up there to show his disbelief and disapproval.

He has stated that if the bible was written today that clearly he would be in it because he is that important of a popular figure right now. WTF!

Here is one quote from him that really highlights how big of a douche this guy really is:

“I realize that my place and position in history is that I will go down as the voice of this generation, of this decade, I will be the loudest voice,” he said in an interview on Wednesday. “It’s me settling into that position of just really accepting that it’s one thing to say you want to do it and it’s another thing to really end up being like Michael Jordan."


I could forgive all this because normally I would not care. But, NPR was wasting time reviewing his new POS album, it really annoyed me.

If you have never heard of this guy, good. All you need to know is viewed as a real winner here!

My BFFs' New Abode

Just a quick notice (because we're too boring to have anything cool to write about our own lives):

Ashley and Aaron finally got to close on their house and it's wonderful! It's so perfect for them in every way. They call it the Mulberry House and that's such a great name for it. It has a ton of character and the character will just grow the longer they inhabit the place so I am looking forward to seeing it next time we're visiting Iowa.

Enjoy your new home, guys. :-D

I forgot...

I forgot that I wanted to include this pic in the last post. Nick and I took Teddy to Claremont for 'Village Venture.' It was a lot of fun with tons of vendors along the streets. But what we enjoyed the most was seeing Teddy mistake these two little guys for real puppies! It took him a good 60 seconds or so to realize they weren't. And since it also took us 60 seconds to find the camera, this is a picture of him giving up on getting the puppies to play with him.

Weather and a Puppy Update

I keep hearing and seeing reports of snow and cold weather where you all are and I just couldn't pass up this opportunity to show you what I wore today. Keep in mind, I don't wear shorts, and I was still a little warm because we don't have our air on...
















Also, we haven't posted any pics of little Teddy on here recently, so here's one of him and his male caretaker bonding. Isn't it cute how he has his little paws wrapped around Nick's arm? :-) awwww...
















Finally, we have purchased our tickets for the holidays. Sadly we don't get to go to Iowa. I was recently there and it would've been too expensive. But, here's what we will be doing...

Dec. 10 Flying to NY
Dec. 12 Making a terribly long drive from NY to MI (at least we'll be in good company)
Dec. 13 Nick graduates! (Call him and congratulate him that day if you can remember...he's very excited.)
Dec. 14 Making a terribly long drive from MI to NY (still good company, though!)
Dec. 26 Flying home to CA (and picking up my mom from the airport!)
Dec. 27 Celebrating my mom's birthday with her. (It's been a long time since I've been able to do that.)

Well, I'm off to watch a Babwa Wawa special on a pregnant man...

Skills

Nick Character level 8 lvl 7th lvl dork/ lvl 1 Professor

Skills
Handle Animal +6 (-4 for cats)
Knowledge: dork +15
Knowledge: psychology +15
Move Silently -10
Perform: Oration +8
Search -15
Swimming +8


Sara Character level 8 lvl 2nd level dork/6th level cutiecup
Handle Animal: +10
Knowledge: dork + 6
Knowledge psychology +13
Listen -2
Perform: Being cute +25
Search: +20
Sense Motive +10
Spot: +12

Point of this post: Sara found my phone.

No Cell...

I can't find my cell phone. I have looked and looked, and I am giving up. Call Sara's number if you need to get a hold of me. I will update to let you know when and if I find it.

Nick

UPDATE

Now you can vote on the Obamas' new puppy.

OMG!

Thank God Palin is not going to the white house. I didn't plan on talking about politics on this blog at all, but this is just amazing and can't be ignored. This was reported by the notoriously conservative FOX news, so nobody can claim it's biased. Didn't we learn where Africa was in like the 2nd grade or something? I get annoyed by ignorance in regular everyday life but can you even imagine having this woman running our country should McCain die?! The horror!

Watch how Sarah Palin didn't even know that Africa is a continent.

A Presidential Puppy

Ok, I said we wouldn't make this blog all about OUR puppy, but I didn't say anything about puppies in general.

Nick and I have been following Barack since December and last night meant a lot to both of us (how often do you follow a candidate for that long and actually see them win?!). He is so awesome in a lot of ways, but last night he added one more reason. He told his daughters during his speech that his girls 'earned the puppy they would be bringing with them to the white house.' How amazingly cute is that? Well, today I went to one of my all time favorite websites and they are taking a poll - what kind of puppy should they get?

Cute Overload is the site.

Crazy Hippies ;-)

And I thought my dad was crazy for having hitchhiked to see my mom back when they were poor, dating, and living in different towns...

http://www.roadjunky.com/article/1535/ludovic-hubler-worlds-craziest-hitchhiker

This also reminds me of the most amazing speaker I've ever seen/heard - John Francis. This man did not speak 17 years or use a car for 22 years. He is completely crazy, and absolutely inspirational. If you ever have a chance to hear this man speak, take it...

http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2005/05/10/hertsgaard-francis/

We have had a good Halloween weekend thus far. We carved a pumpkin on Thursday. We couldn't decide if we would make him happy or scary, so we tried to do half/half. Did we succeed?














Friday night we went to a party at Deb's house. Nick and I did not really feel like creating a new costume, so we just revisited our 'gothtumes' from Eric's party last weekend. We got lazy though and did not do our nails, etc.




















Today, Nick's aunt and uncle, Nick and Ava, came to visit and have dinner with us. It was fun. They got to see our home and Teddy for the first time. We got to hear about their amazing trip to China and see some pics of the sights they saw.

Happy Birthday Eric

We went to Eric's 27th gothday last night. That is, his birthday party that was themed. You may have guessed that theme was goth. Here are Sara and I "Gothed out"









Here is me being totally brutal--using my inner darkness and metal powers...

The horror I summoned was truly dark and terrible, which you might be able to tell from my reaction.

Strange Happenings

So, yesterday we met a woman who was about 40-years old at the dog park . Why am I writing about her? Well, she used to live in Huntington New York, Long Island. If that wasn't strange enough, well she also went to Central College in Pella Iowa--Sara's alma Mater. Now she lives in Southern California--like us--with her dog. Small world!

One of us will be posting again soon to let people know about our possible holiday plans.

Nick

And now for something completely different...

So, our first 2 blogs were about our puppy. Now we're talking about food. Tonight's dinner was one of the most random, hodgepodge meals I have ever made. And it is one of maybe 3 times Nick has ever said...'remember this recipe...it's good.' So, here I will show you all how, sometimes, randomness ends up producing something great.

1. Nick wanted Mexican, so I made taco seasoned ground turkey.

2. I only had curry-flavored tortillas, so that's what I used.

3. I had no beans, so I used cooked carrots, potatoes, and onions.

4. I made a sauce of diced tomato, sliced cucumber, corn and black bean salsa, and sour cream.

5. I topped it all with some cheddar cheese and baked it.

Don't ask me how combining Indian (curry), Mexican (salsa and taco seasoning), and American (cooked potatoes, carrots, and onions) can combine to make one of Nick's favorite meals, but it did. Anyway, thought I'd share this weird happenstance with you.

I swear...this isn't a blog about our dog...

...it's just that we're both so in love and still kind of obsessed with him so it seems like it is. :-) Here is a pic I had to share. Teddy was asleep like this right before I took this shot, but he heard the camera beeping. This is one of the reasons we called him Teddy...he's so laid back he'll let you hold him however you want! It's pretty awesome.

In other news, we're going to a goth birthday party for Eric next weekend and we're pretty excited. Nick's going to wear eyeliner for the first time and I am going to wear leggings/tights for the first (and only) time. Should be fun! We'll post pics.

El Perrito Loco

So, Nick and I love our bestest friends' (Ashley and Aaron) blog because we feel it keeps us up-to-date on their lives. We live so far away and yet, although I miss them a ton, I at least feel like I'm still a part of their lives. Today I started thinking...I wonder if they feel the same way? I wonder if any of the people we love feel that way? We're so far away and, while we love it here, we really miss our loved ones. So, we're deciding to let go of our pride and originality and copy our friends. We're creating a blog. A copycat blog. We don't want that to be the name, but it will work for the time being until we come up with something better. I really hope this serves to help the people we love feel more connected to us in the same way that Ashley and Aaron's blog does.

So, for you non-Spanish speaking folk out there (that really includes us except for a few choice words that include the ones in this blog post title), our post is called 'the crazy puppy.' If you haven't heard yet, Nick and I are now caretakers for a little, 9-month old puppy in addition to our 2 adorable gerbils, Millie and JBJ. Theodore Edward Von Bearenstine (Ted E. Bear), or Teddy as we call him, came into our lives last Sunday. (For some reason Nick is dead set on adding 'Esquire' to the end of is name, but I hate it, so I'm only reporting that under duress.) He is so wonderful. We got him from a rescue in L.A. who picked him up at the shelter because he was set to be put down and they couldn't let that happen...thank goodness. He was a foreclosure dog and we are still trying to figure out how anyone could give him up. He is the biggest cuddler ever. He was absolutely filthy and stinky when we got him, but after a nice bath, which of course he hated, he was all fresh and clean and just smelling like puppy instead of a combination of puppy and urine. He got really sick from being in the shelter, but is finally starting to feel better after starting regimens of two different antibiotics as well as a extra-strong deworming med.


Well, I hope we can actually discpline ourselves enough to actually keep up doing this. This is a start!