Ten Things!!

1.  Have you seen the movie Bridesmaids?  If not, you should.  It was hilarious!!  My sis and I checked it out a few weeks ago at Pacific Place.  So funny.  Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph do a bang up job, and the sleeper hit for me was Melissa McCarthy -- she plays Megan, the groom's sister.  Just check the movie out, you'll see what I mean.  Three words -- puppies wearing berets.

I also saw Hangover 2 with Kim and Casey.  Funny but totally predictable.  Kinda had the same recipe as the first one.  If you haven't seen it, wait for the DVD.

2.  Totally loving my SMASH book!!  Also found this cool SMASH blog.  Being a total pack rat of all things quirky, I have a lot of stuff to put in my Smash book from over the years.  I found a list of favorite movie quotes that I had written down from a few years ago.  Said list now lives in the Smash book.  Apparently I was on a Big Lebowski and Anchorman kick.  Here are some of my favorites:
- Years later a doctor will tell me that I have an IQ of 48, and I'm what some people call "mentally retarded"
- I told those fucks down at the League office a thousand times that I don't roll on Shabbat!
- You brought the fuckin' Pomeranian bowling? What do you mean 'brought it bowling' Dude? I didn't rent it shoes. I'm not buying it a fucking beer. He's not taking your fucking turn, Dude.

3.  I'm loving the new Death Cab for Cutie album, Codes and Keys.  It has been on repeat since I picked it up a few weeks ago.  All great songs but my favorites are Some Boys and Monday Morning -- also the title track Codes and Keys is pretty awesome.

4. In other music news, I saw Will Wakefield & the Congress Hotel at the High Dive in Fremont this past Friday night -- they rocked my socks off!  They were a welcomed departure from my usual music fair.  Check them out on iTunes or go to their next show on Thursday, July 21st at The Sunset Tavern in Ballard.

5. Remember when I told you about Pickwick?  Well I'm going to see them this Friday night and I'm pretty pumped about it.  They blew me away when I saw them at The Tractor a few months ago.  They are playing with another band that I haven't heard of, Shim.  Here's a reminder of how awesome Pickwick are:



6. Check out these super cool earrings my sis got me for my birthday.  They were made by one of my favorite jewelry designers -- Markhed Design.  I've shown her stuff on my blog before.  Love her work.

Hearts and Cross-Bones

7.  A few months ago I discovered the awesomeness that is An Idiot Abroad.  Have you watched it?  You should.  I've also been listening to Ricky Gervais's podcast -- he totally cracks me up.

8.  I've heard from quite a few people that I should be watching Game of Thrones on HBO, so I started watching it today -- just watched the first episode but I can tell it is right up my alley.  Sort of has a Lord of the Rings type feel to it.  Question though -- was monkey business between siblings a common practice in medieval fantasy lands?  Also excited because True Blood Season 4 is starting again at the end of the month.

9. I've had such a great experience taking Ali Edward's One Little Word workshop over at Big Picture Classes, I've decided to take another class -- Mastering Manual Mode.  Should be a fun project to work on over the summer, hopefully the weather will warm up here so I can get outside to take some pictures.

10. Spuzz has turned out to be quite the little rascal!!  He has soooo much more energy than Milo ever had, not surprising considering I got Milo when he was an old man and Spuzz is only 7 months old.  Spuzz is a chewer -- he likes to taste test everything in his path.  This includes the cords behind the television.  I came home from work one day and he had unplugged every cord behind the television.  Since then I have built a little fortress around the tv so he can't get his little mischievious self back there.  He seems to also like to poke around the laundry hamper, looking for stray socks (his most favorite thing of mine to chew on).  He hasn't destroyed any furniture yet, but that is probably only due to the fact that I have about 15 different varieties of chew toys to keep him occupied.  He's a sweet boy though.  He burps and it melts my heart every time.

Here's another video I want to share.  Galen Disston of Pickwick singing "My Best Friend" by Queen with the Seattle Rock Orchestra.  How cool is this?  I wish I would have seen this live.



                

Spuzz got a buzz....cut!!!

It will be three weeks tomorrow since Spuzz wiggled his way into my life, and my heart.  When I first got him he was a little timid, but let me tell you, over the last few weeks he has made himself perfectly at home!  He's a bit spoiled.....he has three new dog beds and they all happen to be in the living room.  The were all purchased separately and meant for different areas of the house, but he has dragged them all into the living room and he can be seen on any one of them throughout the day.  He has no shortage of chew toys, as he LOVES to chew and play.  With an emphasis on chew.  But if he has chew toy options he seems to leave the furniture alone.  Although I'm on a mission tomorrow to find a new clothes hamper.  He has fallen in love with chewing the wooden knobs at the bottom of the cheapy old IKEA hamper I've had since college.  I figure it is about time for a new hamper, plus I don't want his widdle mouth to get all splintered up. 

Handsome boy!!

Last Wednesday Spuzz had his first grooming adventure!!  Look!!  You can actually see his face!!  He apparently passed his first grooming with flying colors.  The lady that groomed him said he did a great job and that he was a really sweet dog.  He is a really sweet dog, I can vouche for that.  He's sweet and playful, and wiggles all over the place with excitement when I come home from work.  We are working *really* hard on getting him potty trained, and I think he's getting the swing of things.  Lots of baby talk in this house at the moment.  Lots of praise and pets and treats when he relieves himself outside, which is almost all the time now.  I've gotten on a walk / play schedule with him that has him going potty outside a couple times a day.  I had to rearrange a couple items in the house though -- I moved Frank's litter box into the kitchen (Spuzz had a few misfires on the rug that I keep under the litter box) in an effort to prevent accidents on the wood floor in the office.  Also totally took away the rug at the front door -- he seemed to like using that as his own personal pee-pee pad.  Since removing those two rug temptations, he has been really great about peeing outside.  Fingers crossed he continues to relieve himself outside!!


Such a gorgeous day at the beach!!

This past weekend was so beautiful, Spuzz and I made a trip down to the beach and the dog park at Golden Gardens.  The dog park has a "small dog" area, but at the time I went early Sunday morning, there were no small dogs in that area, but there were a bunch of small and big dogs in the main area.  I decided to go in to the main area with him and see how he reacted.  Let's just say he wanted to be a spectator that day :)  I set him down on the ground and immediately a happy big dog came over to say hi and Spuzz curled up into a little ball and wedged himself against the fence.  I think he was a bit overwhelmed with all the activity.  So I decided to pick him up and walk over to a bench where we could sit and just watch all the dogs.  I think he liked that just fine!  Maybe next time there will be some small dogs in the small dog side that we can meet.

Spuzz spectating

Spuzz loved the beach though!!  We didn't actually go on the beach, as apparently dogs aren't allowed on public beaches in Seattle, but we did walk around the non-beach area of Golden Gardens.  We found another bench to serve as our home base for people and animal watching.  Lots of other dogs, and a few geese.  We could also hear the sea lions barking which was pretty cool.  They were hanging out on a huge buoy a bit off shore.  Spuzz was pretty interested in the sea lion noise.  After our dog park / Golden Gardens adventure we went home and he took a well-deserved nap.  One tuckered out lil' dog!! 

Here are a couple other shots I took while at the park:

As you can tell, I'm still enjoying the ShakeIt app, but recently I have branched out with Instagram which is a new favorite!
  

Total knob jockey

In an effort to spice this stank burger up, I've been working on a few DIY projects around the house.  The first of which I talked about in a previous post regarding my crappy couch to shabby chic makeover.  It took very little time, and just a wee bit o' casheesh on my part.  Also on the DIY list was to change the boring knobs on my blue dresser.  Here is what the original knobs looked like:

Kinda plain jane, nothing awesome about them.  They weren't ugly by any stretch, but they didn't add any flavor to the dresser.  During one of my trips to World Market I saw they stock a variety of different knobs -- shapes, sizes, colors, etc.  I decided to do a little switch up with the dresser in my bedroom.  Here are some of the knobs I picked out:

The picture doesn't show all of them -- there are 12 total -- but you get the idea of what type of knobs I was looking for.  They aren't that expensive either!  I got a couple sets for $3.99 a set, then a few of the more colorful knobs were $3.99 to $4.99 each.  I think for the whole 12-knob transformation I spent about $40.  Here's the dresser now:

Not the greatest picture ever, but you get the idea.  It looks pretty sweet in person.  I find that, like The Dude's rug, it completes the room :)