Dog Walking Etiquette

I don't really know if there are actual Dog Walking Etiquettes out there but I think it's pretty common sense. When I walk Sasha around the neighborhood and I see another dog already walking down the same path I'm about to take, I take Sasha down another path because I know dogs get excited when they see one another and Sasha is not always that good at staying calm. Or if I see another dog coming, I tend to pull Sasha away from the other dogs and to the side. I think these things are just common sense but I guess common sense is not that common.

Usually when I walk Sasha in the morning, I take my purse and whatever else I have with me so that we can just go straight to the car after our walk. So this morning I had my new LV purse and Sasha's bag with me while walking her. At the very end of our walk I see this guy come across with his two little dogs. I sensed that Sasha was going to get excited so I pulled her back a bit. I was expecting the guy to pull his dogs to the side as well so we can both pass but instead, he just stood there like an idiot. So Sasha was calm but one of his yappy dogs start barking and that made Sasha excited. I tried to pull her and while pulling her, I totally slipped and fell on my knee while scraping my new purse. The good thing is Sasha totally calmed down after I fell. It's like she sensed I fell or knew something wasn't right. I was afraid she was going to bolt. The guy just stood there and did nothing. Still stood there with his stupid dogs. I was furious. I wanted to yell at him and say "Next time pull your dumb dogs to the side!"

My dad is back from Taiwan which means lots of homemade dinners to come. I can really use some home cooked meals. My mom made dinner tonight except she made brown rice rather than white rice. Yuck. I hate brown rice. I told her to make sure to get me white rice tomorrow because I just can't stand brown rice. I know.....I sound like a snob.

There's a store at Fashion Island called Shabby Chic that I absolutely love. I haven't been in a long time but I want everything in that store. I was reading Hygge House Blog today and she was talking about a store she loves in Santa Monica that has a lot of shabby chic stuff and how the owner now has a blog. I went to the blog and find out that she's the owner of the store I love in Newport but that the flagship store is in Santa Monica! I must go for a visit. I want to turn the guest room into a shabby chic room. It'll probably take me awhile but I'm quite excited about that prospect.

Thank god it's Friday tomorrow. Mark will hopefully be able to come home tomorrow night but most likely not until Saturday morning. It's been a long week without him and Sasha and I really miss him. Lots to do this weekend to get ready for our trip next weekend. Yippee!

One down.....

I finally booked our rental car for Maui today. Yes...I have been procrastinating. Originally, I was going to book a convertible like we had last year but they were all out of them at Thrifty so I had to think about another option. I went online to try to find rental car coupons because I refuse to pay full price and found a great deal for Hertz. I looked at all their cars and they had an Infiniti FX35. Mark and I saw his car in the neighborhood over the weekend and it's pretty sleek. I figured why not....might as well rent it and test it out. When we had the convertible last year, it was hard to get our luggage and Mark's guitar in so hopefully, we will have way more space this year in this car.

So that's one less thing I have to worry about on my list. Hotel done, flight done, car done. All there is left is activities but we can plan that once we get there. Hopefully there will just be a lot of laying around on the beach and snorkeling by the hotel.

Disneyland, QVC, Project Runway and more....

This pretty much sums up my 3 day weekend. Mark and I took Friday off and went to Disneyland. It was nice to be there without the weekend crowd but it was REALLY REALLY hot. It really sucked the energy out of the both of us by the end of the day. Mark was a trooper going from ride to ride with me....I know he was getting really tired by the end of the night even though I wanted to go on more rides.

We went to Napa Rose for dinner and it wasn't as good as I had remembered. My food was lukewarm and the soup I got tasted like it came out of a can. Needless to say I was quite disappointed.

Saturday afternoon, Mark and I caught up on some Project Runway episodes. On one of the episodes, they had to create an outfit for Diane Von Furstenberg and the winner would get their outfit made by Diane and be part of her Fall 2008 collection. Leanne won and made a gorgeous long silk dress. Mark said I should get it because it would be a rare item (limited quantity to be made). I showed my sister the dress and she said that the dress would only look good on really tall people. She said the shape of the dress is "picky" and I would have to try it on first. I wish I could try it on first but I can't! So I'm still debating whether or not I should get it. Although Mark will probably say that my opportunities are way gone.

Sunday morning.....I was flipping through channels and happened to stop on QVC. They were showing some jewelry by Tacori so I was interested to see what they had. I normally don't watch QVC but I was sucked in because they said that after the Tacori special, they were going to be debuting a Hello Kitty jewelry line that is made just for QVC. I've been wanting Hello Kitty jewelry for some time now because I love Hello Kitty and the jewelry pieces are way too cute and EXPENSIVE. So when QVC said they were going to debut their Hello Kitty line, I just had to wait and see what they had in store. I was sucked in! I was thinking they were going to have a few pieces but they ended up showing quite a few items and most of them were way too cute and the price was way too good to pass up. I was a frantic woman calling QVC to put my order in. In the end, I was able to purchase a few things and two of the items I wanted are on the wait list. Here are pics of what I got (both purchased and on waitlist). I can't wait to get them!!! Super cute items.
Oh...and the Hello Kitty debut sold out in 45 minutes. It was madness I tell ya.

We got all of Sasha's proofs back today. Mark and I will need to see what the best options are. There are too many pictures we both like so we may end up getting the Photo Box that will come with 50 5x7 photos. We were originally thinking about getting the Coffee Table Book but we'll see. Sasha isn't feeling so feel right now and Mark is gone for a week. Her stomach is bothering her so I have to keep an eye out tonight.

I've been dealing with a couple of investigations at work that has taken up a lot of my time and mental strength the past month. I'm looking forward to going away in a couple of weeks and getting some much needed time away from work with Mark.

Our Baby

Sneak peeks are in from Sasha's photo session. Some of the pictures came out really cute. Some of them really captured the essence of the bear. I can't wait to see the entire collection.

I'm pretty tired right now and fighting to stay awake so I can watch women's all around gymnastics competition. Michael Phelps just won his 6th gold medal....amazing. I just don't bother watching his races anymore because I know he's going to win. No one even comes close to him....

I'll write more tomorrow. I can barely think right now.

Olympics & More....

I have neglected blogging duties for a long time so this one will be long. I am super excited about the Summer Olympics and wish I could take 2 weeks off work so I can stay up all night and watch all the events. This past weekend I pretty much parked myself in-front of the TV and watched tons of Olympic events. How exciting was the swimming relay Sunday night? I don't like the events of the Summer Olympics as much as I do the Winter ones but there are some must sees. I love gymnastics, diving, swimming (Michael Phelps...hello) and badminton. Don't even get me started on the events I don't think should even be an Olympic sport but that's another topic.

Sasha had her very first photo shoot this past Saturday. If you have a dog or cat and want to have their photos taken....please check out Grace Chon. She is really good with dogs and her work is amazing. We can't wait to get our pictures back....she got some really good ones of Sasha. I was afraid Sasha would get antsy during the shoot but she actually did really well. She behaved herself and posed for almost 2 hours. It was really hot outside and towards the end she was panting pretty hard. Proud of my baby girl and we'll have photos soon to show.

Mark and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary a week ago. I can't believe a year has already passed. I'm lucky to have met such a wonderful guy who loves me unconditionally and it's been truly a great year with him in my life. Mark planned a really nice weekend for us and would not tell me what we were doing until the Friday of our annivesary weekend. He booked us into a new hotel in West Hollywood called The London. This is the hotel where Gordon Ramsey's new restaurant is. The hotel is really nice and modern and close to a lot of our destinations. We started off by going to Pink's Hot Dog since Mark had never been. We waited in line for at least 40 minutes but it was well worth it.

Saturday night, Mark took me to a restaurant called Musso & Franks. It's an old landmark restaurant by the Pantages Theater that is a bit creepy inside. The dark and old and the food is just so so. At least we can say we've been but I don't think we ever plan to go back. Part of the reason we went is because we went to watch Wicked again. Some of the characters had different people playing them than from the first time we went but it was still really good. I just love that play so much.

On Sunday, we went to see Steph at her new store, Fashionology. I made a sweatshirt at the store and let me tell you..it's not as easy as it looks. But maybe it's because I wanted to put lots of rhinestones on my sweatshirt so that took awhile. They have some really cute designs in the store and I'm hoping they'll start carrying adult size t-shirts and pants so I can go back and make some more. After that we went to Tiffany's to finalize ring styles and then went to The Farm for lunch. Love their Lobster Cobb Sandwich. So delicious. We had dinner at Gordon Ramsey's new restaurant Sunday night and let me tell you....the portions there are for pint size people. It was tiny! The food was pretty good and I hope he changes up the menu every season. I was hoping Gordon Ramsey would be walking around but no such luck.

Overall it was a wonderful weekend and I'm glad the two of us got some quality time together and even though we didn't travel far....it seemed like we were away on a mini vacation. Thanks honey.

I had to lay someone off at work today and it's not easy. It's tough with the economy today. It's someone's livelihood you are dealing with but I have to remind myself that it's just business. All I can do is try to be fair and that's that.

Ok....back to the Olympics. China just won gold medal for men's synchronized diving. Amazing. They are so good in this event. I think beach volleyball may be up next so I better use that time to take a shower so I don't miss men's gymnastics coming up later on tonight.

Happy 8-8-08

We will never experience this day in our life time and it is considered to be a really really lucky day for Chinese people. Today is also the opening day of the Summer Olympics. I'm taking a break from watching the Parade of Nations. I love the Olympics and look forward to watching it the next 2 weeks. Hope you all had a wonderful 8-8-08.

Chicago

Greetings from Chicago! I'm here for an annual HR conference....my first time and I'm a bit amazed at the number of people that showed up. It's quite interesting to see all these HR professionals from all over the world here.....as one instructor said...."This is your safe house....away from all those crazy employees, your nothing is ever good enough boss, and me me me managers." AMEN! I've been having to wake up at 5:30AM everyday to make the shuttle to take me to the conference at 6:30AM. I am completely beat. Not to mention all the walking I've had to do from one end of the convention center to another. By the end of the day....I'm completely pooped out.

Tonight, for the first time since I got here, I ventured out into the city. My hotel is right on Michigan Avenue which is where all the shops are. I walked to an Italian restaurant a block away and almost got lost. People are use to walking here. A block for them is like 5 blocks for me. I left my hotel about 8PM and thought it should be a quiet evening....was I wrong. When I got to my restaurant, I thought it was a Saturday night rather than a Tuesday night. There were a ton of restaurants around me and even more people hanging out. It really felt like I was in the city....I think I can live here.

I plan to do more sight seeing tomorrow after my conference ends. For now I have to get some shut eye....