Doggie DNA

“Step right up and win a prize”, shouts the carnival worker. “Fool the guesser! If I can’t guess your weight within 2 pounds, your age within two years or the month of your birth within 2 months, you win a prize!”

Well, this isn't quite the same thing but I am offering some fun and the prize can be to gloat all you want. The question in need of an answer for the last 3+ years: What Breed Is Toby?

Feel free to post your guesses here. Pomeranian? Chow Chow? Schipperke? Great Dane? Who knows? Well, in a few weeks I will know thanks to The Wisdom Panel mixed breed analysis. It doesn't come cheap but dammit this girl wants to know. I get asked, on average 3 times per week what breeds make up my little, fluffy baby teddy bear and soon I will be able to provide a definitive answer. Please, comment with your own thoughts/guesses on the subject!

For photos of Toby, check out his Dogster page!

Arizona Spring Training Road Trip 2008!

I am happy to say it is that time of year again: when the days are longer, warmer and soon-to-be full of baseball! I traveled again to the lovely town of Scottsdale, Arizona, and stayed with my wonderful pal Bonnie to enjoy two Spring Training games, our dogs and beer.
First game: Saturday, March 8th at HoHoKam Park in Mesa. The Cubs beat the Diamondbacks 4-1 and I got to see all of the Cubs' starting position players throughout most of the game. This was my first time viewing their new right fielder from Japan: Kosuke Fukudome. I scribbled my attempts to spell his name phonetically in my program: "Foo Kah D'oh May" & Fook Uh Dome A". I really hope he has a productive year, otherwise...
One fun distraction from the game was Bonnie's CCI dog, Payton, who she will raise from age 8 weeks to approximately 18 months. Payton could attend the games with us because she is an in-training assistance dog. She was super sweet and slept through the one half inning that had any offensive excitement.
Concessions consumed: Super Dog, Nachos & bottled water (do not be alarmed! I had to save up my beer drinking for the charity brewfest later that afternoon near ASU's campus - adorable picture attached)
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Game #2 - Seattle Mariners v. Milwaukee Brewers in Maryvale. Nice park, sunny skies, Brewers won. Now on to the rest of the details! We first consumed delicious fried chicken & waffles & red velvet cake from Lo-Lo's Chicken & Waffles, then enjoyed our kick-ass seats eight rows behind home plate, and then 7th inning stretch Sausage Race (the mascots even hung out and I got my picture taken with them!) Later that day we checked out the 50,000 square foot Whole Foods store - oh, the temptation.
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To help burn off some of the calories consumed during my fabulous weekend road trip, I took a solo hike at Pinnacle Peak Park and that was a challenging Monday morning! Toby traveled with me on this journey and was a well-behaved, yet non-functioning navigator. I highly recommend the audio books I listened to on the drive: Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis & Oh, The Things I Know! A Guide to Success, or Failing That, Happiness by Al Franken. I purchased several Spring Training commemorative items including t-shirts, colorful magnets and the winner of the Sausage Race: The Chorizo!!!

Fire Station Birthday Party!!

On a recent, warm Sunday afternoon I attended the birthday party of a very clever girl: at a charity auction she was the high bidder for the following prize: a birthday party at a fire station. Apparently this endeavor is usually geared toward children. Hey - what about the 3-digit-weighted 'kids' with investment portfolios and rent to worry about? Why can't we have some good, silly fun too?

Well, fun we did have: delicious adult-palate-friendly catered items such as bruschetta, shrimp cocktail and scrumptious desserts. Then the fire station fun started: several of us got to gear up and wear the big, firefighter boots, the big, firefighter pants and the big, firefighter coats. The professionals have mere seconds to get all of this on, it took me about 4 minutes (I had a lot of suspender issues). We posed for fun photos, sprayed various size hoses, witnessed The Jaws of Life and even went for an engine ride with sirens whirring! Hey, why don't more fire stations offer this as a fundraiser? Chicks dig it.
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Granted, the professionals were ready to leave at any moment should a call come in, but fortunately that was not necessary. Many of those in attendance enjoyed fulfilling some long-awaited dreams of checking out a fire station with actual firefighters. And a memorable birthday party was had by all!


"Libertarian Reluctantly Calls Fire Department"
Headline from The Onion

I Voted! (Make Every Tuesday a Super Tuesday!)

So states the sticker I shall proudly wear today. Or until it shrivels and falls off after being whacked by my hair one too many times.

I voted in the primary! I have voted before but never:

1) At someone's house in a residential area
2) In a garage
3) With an ocean view (!!!)

This was not my first time voting in California and this was not my first time voting for a candidate with a certain last name. Did I rock that vote? I think I did!