Dogtober

Last weekend was the 2nd Annual Dogtober event for East C.A.N.
once again we had the use of ArtHouse Gardens (thanks Alan) and Elizabeth and Shelley basically did all of the organizing. I have been a little swamped at work and didn't really get involved at all as they pulled everything together.

8 am - 4 pm was my gig. I brought Beda since he's officially looking for a new home. He is still a foster dog even though we've had him for ages.

well, he's not officially looking, but i am.
Although things have been going well at the house (ie: Abner hasn't been a total butthead lately and attacked him) and since folks aren't lined up for him due to him being a... um... senior dog - we certainly haven't been pushing things.


until now. :)



he was so darn cute. who wouldn't want to take him home?
i thought he'd made a love connection at one point, but i was mistaken. bummer!


Anyway... the day was all about music, pumpkins, dogs to pet, a 3K run/walk, raising money and awareness, and of course..... the infamous Listserve Pie Toss!

We asked the top listserve posters to participate and quite a few of them agreed to take a pie in the face in the name of a cause.
those brave enough to show up were:
Rembrandt (father of 22 - who lined up to toss a pie!)
Mitch Palmer (hammer extraordinnaire - you need shakes? he's got em!)
Grizzly Reeves (who drove about 45 minutes in for this since he's moved out of East Nasty)
Elizabeth Chauncey (she was kind of trapped since she's our fearless leader!)
Wryker (manager of his own fan club)

E Burt was next door hawking her wares at Meg's for the day's yard sale so she deferred.
Pam was too chicken to show up as was Bill Bernstein. that's ok. we'll get em next time.
oh, and Alan .... he "had to work in another location" yeah right... whatever.


Here are some pics!

oh, and i got in on the action too!

i'm pretty sure this is what caused my back to go out on me for the next 5 days!

:)

Weekend Update

not really the SNL kind. the eastsidekind

got up early saturday morning thinking i was going to go to Oktoberfest/Germantown Street Festival to hold a puppy and try to make people think they want to take it home.

too many volunteers and not enough pups - go figure! One was adopted the night before and I generally don't take Beda out to things like this although it would be really great if i did.

this is Beda.

So, Alison (my sister) and i headed out still pretty early to go try to regain some German nostalgia.
yeah right. after perusing the booths and Alison making a few purchases (for those of you with no money - it's a really great way to satisfy the urge to spend - more later.) we decided to eat lunch

Alison is a pescaterian (she eats fish but no other meat) so she ate the veggie beer cheese soup from Mad Platter. I found one of many vendors advertising bratwurst and had that.
bratwurst? whatever. more like a polska kielbasa in a hot dog bun with american mustard on top.
um... hellooooooooo bratwurst is not italian sausage, hot dog, polska k, turkey sausage, smoked sausage. it's bratwurst. and i know it by the flavor. this wasn't it.
and who ever ate it from a hot dog bun? it's supposed to come in a crusty roll "brochen".
and bright yellow mustard is a travesty.

and truthfully, i could have lived with the hot dog bun and the yellow mustard IF i had been eating a brat.
i spose if i had waited to eat until after consuming 1 or 2 of the enormous beers being sold for god knows how much i may not have noticed.
i didn't drink any beer. so i guess you can say i didn't hold up my end of the whole Oktoberfest deal either.
but the German Chocolate Cake from Mad Platter that Alison and i shared on our way back to the car was divine. the icing was homemade and you could tell. we both loved it.

back to the spending money thing. Alison and i have similar things we are drawn to so we tend to visit the same types of booths at these events. we both naturally steered right into a sweet little booth with pillows and sleep masks and fabric journal covers. i eventually realized i had seen her things before at the Tomato Arts Fest earlier this summer. the cutest stuff! White Cottage Design
and they live in East Nash too! while having a conversation she mentioned her 150 pound american bulldog Boris. i said... wait a minute... you live on Douglas! yup! i run past her house with the dogs and have met them on the street with their big hoss of a dog!
love it.
Alison bought a holiday gift and two things for herself and i like to think it was because i was spending through her. i'm pretty good at convincing someone they need to "go ahead and get it" it's so cute "why not?" just think... "you'll have one gift down and only a few more to worry about"
it's really my way of being able to spend money without having any.

I love to go shopping with people who have money. When Todd wanders into a men's shop at the mall i love it when he says "i think i need a new shirt" or a new pair of shoes or whatever.
ooooh goody! i immediately go to work looking for the perfect shoe or shirt. or if it's a gift for someone .... yay! two of my favorites! i get to pick it out and maybe get to be there when someone opens it! (more later on that one!)

So, Alison ended up calling me a bad influence and i got excited knowing she had two new items for herself that i happen to think are just perfect! AND one for someone else.

mission accomplished! ha!

Countdown

I'm not the only person who has a significant other that spends most of their days away so I'm not looking for sympathy.

I always say things could be much worse and i'm a lucky girl.


Today I took Todd to the airport for another long and hopefully final leg of what we like to call "the neverending tour"
He'll be in Japan, China, Korea, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, Greece, UK, and Ireland with a few possible additions and maybe a subtraction or two.

I get to meet him in London on November 13th and hang until they move long to Newcastle from Manchester. Get to visit with family and hopefully take awesome pictures.

The title is countdown because I'm pretty excited about going to England again. It has been way too long and the first time back without my grandparents living. I'm glad I won't go to their house actually. I want to see it again but not on this trip. too upsetting.

35 days til i leave for London.
yay!
Here is my To Do list...

1. follow a meal plan for the next 35 days
2. try to peel a few more pounds by following above mentioned meal plan
3. consistently run with dogs for the next 35 days. good for them good for me.
4. get the darn grass to grow in the backyard before i leave! It's grass growin time um.. did you hear that Abner? NO DIGGING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this is Abner. he's a digger.
that's as far as i'm going with the to do list.
It's already daunting.

ok..... GO!