AWESOME

From the Mt. St. Helens Webcam - how awesome is it?!

Last minute Christmas shopping!

CHRISTMAS CAKE

It's blurry, and not quite as good a photo as I wanted, but meet......OUR TREE! Courtesy of the Cohort's amazingly thoughtful gift. A surprise package from my Mom arrived today with a few of my favorite ornaments from my childhood and one or two new ones, which totally helps make the tree.



Cake on a walk! Now that she's out of heat, we can take her on longer walks and the pooping/peeing inside has become a non-issue. Thank GOD.

OH MY GOD IT'S CAKE

Except for the Cake is a way more cool Wheaten.

-Courtesy of Natalie Dee

WISH LIST

Things Cake has done over the last  week:

Pooped outside three days in a row.

Learned the difference between shake, sit and all the way down.

Dyed part of her hair a lovely burgundy by leaping into our laps and dumping a glass of wine on herself. 

Learned to mountain climb over the furniture. 

Tried to eat the Christmas Tree.

Destroyed my Catalina Marathon Visor.

Ate through the rear left stereo speaker wire.

Peed on all THREE duvets, making what I previously considered a bit too many duvets, totally reasonable and actually too few given that now all we have is a sleeping bag and a duvet cover. Cleaning three giant down duvets is a bit of an overwhelming task. 

Spent so much time staring out the window watching what goes on she's started to freak out the guys installing carpet on our floor.

Made the elevator her bitch. No dog rides the elevator like Cake does. And to think - a week ago she was terrified of it!

Set the car alarm off four times in five minutes. 

Licked the entire inside of every window in my car.

Beheaded every animal that isn't six feet off the floor. 

Made me smile so many times it's all been totally worth it. If I catch her sleeping spread-eagle on her back again, I'll take a picture and you tell me if you don't want to insta-snorfle.

HOUSE OF JEWELS

I spent the last 48-72 hours up North, in SF visiting my ladies. The first 16 hours was pure, sick, hell. I am not entirely sure how I made it onto the plane, though I know I drove myself while were nice enough to cut me a LOT of slack, and allow me to hibernate myself in Heather's bed for almost all of Friday. I was wearing a wool hat, grippy gloves, socks, a raincoat, pants, long sleeved shirt, and had the duvet pulled up to my eyelids and was colder than 60F in San Diego.

I remained as such for about 12 hours.

We saw a homeless guy get NAILED by a 4-Runner. 911 put me on hold. Seriously.

And, also, I had the pleasure of having a security woman at SFO hold a bottle of Dasani aloft and yell to the people in line "WATER IS A LIQUID, PEOPLE. WATER IS A LIQUID." Then she hurled it into the nearest garbage can. Something tells me a shockingly small percentage of the people saw the humor.


I returned early Sunday to watch football and pick out our first Christmas Tree(!!!), which came through an amazingly thoughtful gift from the Cohort. We actually have more ornaments than I realized; about eight. But, I've never been a "themed tree" person. My family Christmas Tree is a delightful montage of all travel my family has ever taken. When I was younger, I found the international abundance of Christmas ornaments baffling. Now, it all makes sense as my parents' tree tells a great story, and we can explain where every ornament came from. I'm trying to do the same with my trees, and am okay with just a few ornaments this year. Each has a story and that's what's important.

The holidays are in full swing. We had our office luncheon last week, and our holiday ornament decorating luncheon the next day. Corporate sponsored arts and crafts are the best! Before I know it, I'll be writing reminders on my mirror to pack for Seattle.

Oh, and in AMAZING news, Cake pooped her very first OUTDOOR poop!! Victory!


baby steps, people, baby steps.