Monday, December 31st, 2011

Good morning, friends!  This is one of my favorite times of the year!!!  This was what we looked like last year at this time.  No little Bear yet-just the 3 of us. Ever since I've been small I've loved making New Year's resolutions.  I'm a goal person.  I like to set goals and then reach them.  I dig it.  I don't understand how people don't make New Year's resolutions!  It's a time of the year to look back and appreciate the good things about your life and what you did, and also a time to say "this is what I'd like to do better to live the life I want."

These are the things I'm proud of about the past year:

1.  I worked harder than I ever have before to finish my first year of grad school.  One of my favorite achievements occurred last March when I got the results of my first Cell Bio exam.  After studying for weeks, neglecting the rest of my life, and giving it all I thought I had,  I'd low passed.  LOW PASSED! (If you low pass 2 out of the 3 exams you fail the course). It was a terrible feeling.  Not because I'd low passed, but because I worked so hard and STILL low passed.  Everything inside me told me I wasn't good enough - wasn't smart enough - that they'd made a mistake letting me in.  I burned the exam in the toilet and sobbed to my Dad that I would honor the next one (I can be a little dramatic at times).  I didn't honor the next one, but I high passed it and then, finally, I honored the last one.  I was so proud of that.  It took absolutely everything I had.  I learned about myself that I can do it.  

2.  I had my first fully vegetarian year.  My body feels better than ever and I feel better than ever about my food choices.  I could expound about the philosophy of how we treat animals and food choices and yahta yahta yahta, but the bottom line is that I think it's wrong and I know it's unsustainable, bad for the environment, and promotes high cholesterol, heart disease, and a host of other health maladies.  I joined a CSA, which meant I paid a little more to support a small family-run farm and eat organic produce, but it forced me to learn how to cook for myself and broadened what I eat on a daily basis.  It was one of the best 500 bucks I've ever spent.

3.  I had my best, most committed running year ever.  I remember going for runs with my Dad when I was about 12 or 13.  I've always run, but mostly it was to stay in shape for basketball.  In the past 7 years I've really gotten in to it.  Last year my goal was to run 1000 miles.  I didn't.  I ran 856.  I didn't reach it - but I bested my best year by more than 100 miles.

4.  I took my dogs almost every day to the Park.  It's tough to get up at 6am every day in wind, rain, heat, snow, sleet.  But I did it - and I did it because I love them.


My New Year's Resolutions for 2013:

1.  Stop eating crap when you get home from work.  This is the worst.  When I get home from work I'm like a starving snow yeti.  I will eat anything that's around.  Slices of bread with big hunks of cold butter spread on them, ice cream, nuts, tortillas, cheese off the block, chocolate, peanut butter out of the jar, salad croutons out of the bag... My goal this year is to plan better.  If I have things around that I can easily eat that are healthy - I'll stop eating crap when I get home.  Every Sunday I'm going to make something that I can easily heat up or eat right away that is good for me and that I can eat after work.

2.  Run 1000 miles.  Yep, this is the year.

3.  Learn to cook at least 15 NEW vegetarian meals.  (I'll write them down as I go so I know where I'm at).  I'll also be joining my CSA again, so this should be an even better year.

4.  This is the biggest one - Work on eliminating negative thoughts from my mind.  If you know me, you probably know that I love yoga.  I have done it pretty regularly for several years now and the more I do it, the more I realize how many wonderful things it offers you.  One of the major aspects of yoga is eliminating negativity and being mindful of the energy you put out into the world.  This might seem a little vague, but my goals are concrete.  When I have a negative thought (about someone, something, my body, my abilities, NYC, traffic, you name it...), I'll replace it with another thought.  I won't share negativity with others.  To do this, I'll avoid gossip and I will avoid negative conversation topics with others.

Happy New Year's, folks!

Carpe diem!

J

 

Friday, December 28th, 2012

Good morning!  Back to our usual routine today.  Well...sort of.  Remember how I told you getting up early was the toughest thing to get back?  Well we did go to the Park this morning but I was up at 7:15 instead of 6.  I think it's making it tougher that I know next week I'll be gone again - so it doesn't really feel like I'm "back." I'm on vacation mode.  Not even vacation mode - I still don't mind working - I like work.  I just want to sleep in.  In case you were wondering that little one up there is Bear with his Christmas collar on the way home from Chatham on Christmas Day.  He does not like to put his head down in his bag.  He likes to be aware of what's happening at all times.  

I'm SOOOO excited to go home to Oregon next week!!  

Here's a little video of Bear playing his favorite game:

http://youtu.be/3NtSlGFDr0Q

Carpe diem,

J 

Thursday, December 27th, 2012
Lots of places & lots of times

Good morning!  Welcome back to Little Dogs, Big Park.  We're getting back into the swing of things here in the big apple.  I tend to let myself get a little lazy around the holidays so it's always an adjustment to get back into it.  In particular I allow myself to sleep in during the holidays, and that's the toughest thing to get back.  It's tough to wake up at 6.  This morning it was unfortunately raining pretty hard at 6am.  You know I usually deal with rain but this was hard, cold rain.

We had some snow here over the holidays - which was beautiful!  I LOVE snow!!  Wish it had been snow this morning instead of rain! 

Happy Holidays, friends. 

Carpe diem,

J

Friday, December 21st 2012

Good morning!   Sorry AGAIN no picture!  It is a nasty, nasty morning here in NYC.  Heavy rain all morning and really high winds.  When I got up at 6, it was too nasty even for us die-hard Park-goers.  The pups got only a little walk around the block :(  (and they were happy about it - they didn't want to be outside).  They're dirty little dogs and need a bath this evening before we head to Chatham for the holidays.  I've also gotten them some little holiday bandanas so that they'll be festive. 

My birthday was wonderful!  Chris Botti did not disappoint last night - he was just as incredible as last year.  Lisa Fisher was his main singer and she toured with the Rolling Stones for 19 YEARS before joining Chris.  She's absolutely freaking incredible and an amazing stage presence.  She really gets the audience going.  We were going to eat at the Blue Note, but the prices were ridiculous.  30 dollars and up per plate.  I don't THINK so.  So we wandered a bit and were about to settle for pizza when we found an awesome little hole in the wall called Dos Toros.  6 dollars per quesadilla.  Fresh black beans, peppers and onions fried up on the grill while you waited, rice, and their homemade salsa and hot sauce.  Brian got the pork and I had vegan.  They were so GOOD!  We scarfed them and then headed over to the Blue Note where I got an embarassingly blue martini and enjoyed just absolutely incredible music. 

Happy Holidays from 2 little dogs!

Carpe diem,

J

Thursday, December 20th, 2012

Good morning!  There is a lot to be happy about today at Little Dogs, Big Park! 

Sorry I don't have a picture today.  I slept in today because I forgot to set my alarm last night because I fell asleep on the couch after mowing through an enormous quantity of Chinese broccoli with peanuts and brown rice. I just didn't have it together.  But I had a beautiful morning walk in the Park and upon returning found to my HAPPY surprise that Brian had not left for work!  He stayed this morning so that we could have breakfast together!  (Something that never happens during the week).  So we went for egg sandwiches and coffees and remarked how nice it was and that we wish we could do that every day. 

Then he went to work and I, unshowered, unchanged from walking the dogs in dirty, ripped jeans with crushed dog treats in the pocket, went to work.  My boss skyped me to wish me a happy birthday and I am now sitting, chatting with you at my desk computer.

This evening we are going to the Blue Note to see Chris Botti again (YAYYY!).  This is what we did last year on my birthday and it was INCREDIBLE.  I'm very excited.  We're going to have dinner in the West Village to celebrate all we have to celebrate.  In addition to my 26th year of life, Brian passed his big test yesterday!  He had a 6 hour exam for the Series 7 - which he needed for work.  Now I think he's licensed to buy and sell almost any type of security there is. It was a big accomplishment and something that he worked very, very hard for during the past month. 

I'm super proud of him. 

That is all. 

Carpe diem,

J

Wednesday, December 19th, 2012

Treated to an incredible sunrise in the Park today.  I wish you could have seen what happened next.  I really couldn't capture it with a photograph.  Peeks of fluorescent orange and pink clouds, radiant orange and red light.  A photo would simply not have done it justice.  The clouds were an absolutely incredible color - true bright pink - like someone had dashed paint into the sky.  A treat after dark and rainy mornings the past week. 

A non-incredible surprise was remembering this morning that I'm out of coffee.  That is non-incredible and necessitates an immediate trip to the store. 

Good luck to Brian taking his Series 7 today!!!

Carpe diem!

J

Tuesday, December 18th, 2012
Central Park East - 7:00am

Good morning!  This is a picture of my little Glowdoggies at the Park on another dark, wet morning. 

Have a wonderful day, my friends!

J

Monday, December 17th, 2012

Good morning!  Another dark and rainy morning here in NYC.  So dark that I had to put the Glowdoggie dollars on the pups so that I could see them.  We had a snuggly weekend here in the city.  Brian was busy holed up studying for his exam and it was a bit dark and rainy.  Yesterday I made this delicious thing posted above.  It's an individual pot pie (vegetarian).  Let me tell you what it was freaking good, too. 

Inside it's got curly kale, white beans, carrots, celery, onion, and garlic.  I simmered that down in olive oil with some salt, pepper, thyme, sage, and red pepper flakes.  Then I made a thick gravy with butter, flour, and vegetable broth.  Beforehand I had made the crust out of flour, butter, sour cream, white wine vinegar, and water.  I mixed the gravy + vegetables then topped the container with the pastry crust and baked it for about 30 minutes.  They were phenomenal.  We have 2 more that we'll have for dinner tonight.  It is so the best when you know you've got leftovers ready to make during the week. 

I'm SO looking forward to heading out to Chatham this weekend for some relaxation other fun stuff.  The doggies love to have nice long walks out there (and so do I). 

Have a wonderful day!

J

FRIDAY, December 14th, 2012

Good morning!  I forgot to take a picture in the Park this morning because I was busy chit-chatting with Susan - lady of Logan, the black flat-coated retriever.  He kind of looks like a more athletic & bigger black Golden retriever.  Logan is a sweet heart, but has an aggression problem with puppies.  He barks super loud and scares them and usually tries to dominate them.  Funny enough, he has no problem with Bear and never has.  I think this has to do with the fact that he doesn't view Bear as an actual dog - more like a small, soft, non-threatening, rabbit-like thing.  Bear jumps ALL over Logan's face and Logan just lets him do it.  I think my dogs are so submissive (read: wussy) that with other dogs that are normally aggressive, they just don't provoke it (like Griffin - the enormous Shepherd, and Lola the pit-mix).

In other news, in addition to yesterday being Dad's birthday, it was also Brian and my anniversary of 4 years together :)  He set everything up like our first date.  Including the same song that was playing when I came home, he made baked macaroni and cheese, got us the above cake (which I couldn't eat because I was so stuffed from the mac & chee), and gave me my birthday present early (tickets to the Blue Note in the West Village to go see Chris Botti again like last year).  That guy is a good one. 

I put some Christmas presents under the tree the other day that I got for Brian, and he just informed me last night that he thought they were for the dogs since they've been out. Seriously?  What in the world could be in them that would be for a dog?  He was pretty psyched to find out they were ALL for him.

Tonight we have a dinner with some of Brian's family at the Cornell club downtown - which I am very excited for and looking forward to getting dressed up :)  The common theme for December is dinner - dinners all the time.  Oh, and also I have a 15K to run tomorrow morning.  Yes, you heard right - a 15k that I am most certainly not trained for.  This could get ugly.

Have a great one,

J   

Thursday, December 13th, 2012
Central Park East (below): ~7:00am

Good morning! 

Happy Birthday to my DAD! 

I'm happy to report that my little peanut is better today after his trash-induced gastrointestinal distress.  He didn't wake us up last night.  yaay! 

Have a wonderful day - especially you, Dad!

J

Good morning, folks.  We don't have a picture today because we did not frequent the Park this morning.  Bear had a bit of a shitting catastrophe last night (yea, yea I know, TMI).  Result of said catastrophe was me sleeping on the couch in my clothes (so I would be prepared for outdoors), with both doggies on top of me.

I slept in a bit (7:30?), at which point, Brian waking up converted the doggies into howling hounds of fury at the potential intruder.  Bear seems to be much better this morning.  I feel fairly certain that the cause was some horrible thing from the garbage that has now been digested.  Dogs.  They're just so disgusting sometimes.  One of my friends posted this morning about his dog having a catastrophe last night, too.  He has an absolutely enormous Mastiff-Boxer cross that ate a box of powdered laundry detergent resulting in my friend having to induce vomiting.  I think it involved using a plastic syringe from his lab to spray hydrogen peroxide down the dog's mouth, which I'm sure was great with a 100+ lb beast of an animal (I'm not kidding, he's probably one of the biggest dogs I've ever seen). 

Anyway,

Have a great one!  This mediocre night's sleep isn't getting in my way today!

J

Tuesday, December 11th, 2012
Central Park East entrance - 7:00am

Good morning!  It started out pretty nasty and quickly perked up into a pretty morning.  It was raining an awkward amount.  When I walked out the door, I contemplated cutting it short the entire way to the Park.  It was raining hard enough to be obnoxious and cold, but still not that hard.  Since I think both my doggies and I need the morning walk, I just kept moving forward.  I was rewarded by the end of the walk by some very pretty clouds and sky peeking out.  I also now have 2 very wet and very dirty dogs. 

I was thinking about my dogs this morning on our walk.  I was thinking about how my dogs make me a better, more accountable person.  Here are the reasons why.

I believe that to give your dog a good life they need these things:

1.  Leadership, boundaries, and expectations
2.  Discipline
3.  Routine
4.  Affection
5.  Time
6.  Exercise
7.  Love*

In order for me to live a good life I need some things, too:

1.  Leadership, boundaries, and expectations
2.  Discipline
3.  Routine
4.  Affection
5.  Time
6.  Exercise
7.  Love*

*Love...that's a special one.  We should talk about it more.  I don't think love needs to be unconditional.  There are lots of conditions on my love.  It's hard to get.  I wouldn't love my dogs if they attacked me.  In that same vein, why does everyone say a dog has unconditional love for you?  That's not entirely true.   Dogs have unconditional dependence on you - there is a big difference.  They probably love you if you're kind to them, but who knows, really.  Love and dependence can often be confusing.  This is partly because our culture hangs up the words need and love on the same coat-rack.  Your needs belong to you alone.  Love is something that is shared with another individual being upon careful consideration and trust.  That individual being (dog, cat, horse, human, guinea pig, rabbit) is just another being and is not responsible for fulfilling your needs - only you can do that. 

For example,  I love Brian, but I don't need Brian (sorry Brian, but you already knew that).  My life would be just as satisfying and happy if I had never met him.  Expecting Brian to fulfill my needs is as silly as expecting my dog to fulfill my needs.  It is dependence, not love. 

One thing that's great about a dog is that if you look again at the lists, you quickly realize that by working to fulfill an animal's needs, you fulfill your own. They force you to take better care of yourself and your needs.  It's a great, healthy relationship - probably the healthiest one you could hope to get from anyone or anything :) 

Carpe diem,

J

Monday, December 10th, 2012
Central Park East - 6:25am

Good morning!  I'll keep it short and sweet today.  All I want to do is play hooky and stare at my Christmas tree all day.  I want to get back in my bed and sleep until approximately noon, followed by a long prolonged breakfast of pancakes and syrup.  I want to watch Christmas movies and have no responsibilities.  Instead, I have to go in to work and do unfortunate things to mice followed by more unfortunate things to mice at 9pm tonight. 

Carpe diem,

J

 Bear biting Sofie's ear as per usual. 

Sofie looking annoyed.  

Friday, December 7th, 2012

Good morning!  Sorry I missed you all yesterday.  My Mom alerted me to my lack of post when she called inquiring as to whether I'd been kidnapped.  The truth is, I was sitting at my computer yesterday morning, ya know, drinking my coffee - eating my oatmeal, and just plum forgot to post.  Not today, friends!  Not today.

You want to know what those are above?  Those are dog treats.  I made home-made dog treats yesterday night.  They are actually insanely easy but a bit calorie-dense so you have to dole them out sparingly.  Want to know how, other dog owners?

2 cups flour (they say rye, but honestly who has that lying around - I used all purpose)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 cup of shredded parmesan cheese (or 1/4 cup of Nutritional Yeast but only Vegans have that laying around).
1 teaspoon garlic powder (apparently a natural flea repellent - I don't know about that but it probably tastes good)
(mix it up)

2 strips of bacon fried really crispy
2/3 cup beef or chicken broth
2 tablespoons leftover bacon grease (basically all that's left from frying the bacon)

Mix broth + bacon fat and then make a dough with the wet + dry.  Crumble in the bacon.

Roll it out really flat using flour to make it less sticky, and make cookies!  Two 1-inch x 1-inch cookies is the max number per day for a dog (calorie-wise). Bake treats at 350 for 10-20 mins depending on how hot your oven is. (Ours is from about 1950 and is an inferno). 

Adapted from: "Feed Your Best Friend Better" (yes, I have a dog food cookbook). 

The dogs really like them :)

And Brian even thought they looked good.

Carpe diem!


J

Wednesday, December 5th, 2012
Central Park East - top: 6:45am, bottom: 7:13am

Good morning!  The sky was doing interesting things today (as you can see).  The sky was intensely blue, and it kept trying to peek out from heavy clouds.

Man, today was one of those mornings!  My alarm went off and I just lay there 10 more minutes bargaining with myself. 

"Just be late to work! Sleep in!  You definitely need it."
"No, you have work to do - you're most productive in the morning."
"PLEASE I need this!"
"You'll just regret this later."
"How can I magically make time stop while I get approximately 9 more hours of sleep?"
"Just get your lazy butt up.  The sooner you're done the walk, the sooner you will be drinking your 10 cups of coffee." (Not actually 10 cups)

Bear starts whining after my alarm goes off, anyway.  Kind of ruins things.  I can also begin to hear trucks & honking, making me feel like it's actually not that early. 

Now I'm done my walk, drinking my 3rd mug of coffee and eating toast slathered with salty butter (I don't CARE - i LOVE butter!).  I love coffee so much.  I love the smell.  I love the beans.  I love the act of making coffee.  I love hot coffee - coffee was not meant to be cold.  I love mugs and travel mugs.  I love expensive, sugary drinks of the pumpkin spice and peppermint mocha variation.  I love coffee with whiskey in it (whoops...did I type that out loud?)  I love coffee with ice cream in it.  I love coffee with whipped cream on top.  I love espresso, lattes, mochas, americanos, you name it. 

Ok this is getting weird.   

Have a great day!

J

Tuesday, December 4th, 2012

Good morning, folks!  Twas a dark and rainy morning.  So dark and rainy in fact, that I did not take a picture.  There was nothing to take a picture of.  There was nobody out in the Park but this dog walker that I see just about every day.  He walks a 100 lb German Shepherd named Griffin.  Griffin doesn't play nicely with other dogs except for mine.  He is a lamb with Sofie and Bear and a lion with the others.  It's the funniest thing.  I think it's because Bear and Sofie always run up to Griffin to greet him with tails wagging very low (like puppies) and immediately flip on their backs when they get near him so that he can smell them.  From then on, it's all cool.  They get along like peas & carrots. That's one thing I've always really appreciated about my dogs.  There's never any dominance games.  They don't get into fights.  They're not aggressive with anything or anyone. Griffin's a nice entourage to have - nobody messes with you. 

So anyway, this dog walker was telling me all about how he doesn't have a dog right now and he doesn't think he wants one, despite his girlfriend wanting one.  He gets enough of them all day. Instead, he wants to get a rabbit.  There's something about this I find funny - dog walker doesn't have a dog - wants a rabbit instead.  He wants to litterbox train it, give it a tiny dog bed to sleep in, and not have to walk it, etc...  There's one thing I like about this guy - we never talk about work or other boring stuff.  We always talk about fun stuff, like skiing, or Vermont, or rabbits.  Never the obligatory "so what do you do..."

In other news, I do have a picture for you!  (Just not a Park picture).  In case I hadn't had enough reindeer cookies on Sunday, Brian brought something home for me yesterday :)

I didn't actually eat it yesterday.  It's just sitting on my desk because it's so cute.

Have a great one,

J

Monday, December 3rd, 2012

Good morning!  I was a sourpuss this morning.  Didn't want to get up - tired - hanging on to a great weekend that went too fast.  Even out on the walk I couldn't seem to lighten up.  Even now - I just want to go back to sleep.  Just want to get back into my warm/snuggly bead.  As you can see, this weekend we got our Christmas tree! NYC trees are ridiculously pricey, but are you going to turn down a tree for the holidays?  (No).  Especially not in light of the fact that Brian and I didn't get to spend Christmas together last year.   

So Friday night Brian had a work happy hour and didn't get home until 10:30 or so.  I stayed in, bathed my dogs, had an elevator adventure with Sofie that I won't get into now, and watched The Dark Knight - which I haven't watched since my birthday 3 years ago.  Saturday I went into work for a bit, then headed down to Brooklyn with Brian to meet up with our friends Paul and Allison to discuss Oktoberfest.  The 4 of us have a European tour planned for next September - beginning in Munich for Oktoberfest and ending in Prague.  Fittingly, we met up at Radegast Bier Hall where we enthusiastically proclaimed we were practicing for next year and discussed our plans.  We also managed to secure 4 full pairs of lederhosen - because what's a trip to drink your face off in Germany without lederhosen?  We plan to spend 2-3 days in Munich, 2-3 days in Vienna, 1 day driving the autobahn from Munich to Vienna (possibly stopping in Salzburg or another part of Bavaria), and 3-4 days in Prague before our return.  We also ate a lot of pretzels, cheese, and drank several liters of beer.  From there we frequented various other locale before ending at the sweaty, dancey establishment K&M.  Had a blast -  ran into our friend's girlfriend, Paige. 

Sunday we slept in and then staved off the lingering beer with tater tots and cheesy eggs.  Typing the word tater tots makes me laugh out loud.  LOL.  Sunday I worked again, but it will only make today easier.  Then we got our tree & made reindeer sugar cookies.  Our friends Geoff & Paige stopped by and together we ate 20 of the 24 cookies while watching The Walking Dead - which is an incredible show.  Yes, you heard right, 20.  Can you see why I didn't want this weekend to end? 

 

 Carpe diem,

J