2015!

This is always an exciting time of the year -- full of possibility and plans for the year ahead.  It's pretty unbelievable that it is already 2015.  Not sure why, but it feels like a milestone of some kind.  We may not have Mr.Fusion-powered, flying time machines yet, I still hope it will be a good year!

Clyde turned 8 weeks old today and has acclimated to his new "home" very well and I'm already convinced that we have the smartest and bestest dog of the bunch.  He came to us sleeping through the night (win!), mostly potty-trained (double-win!!), and has already gotten a good handle on his first two commands.

Here he is showing off his "drop n' watch".  It's the "default" position for our service dogs, so I'm excited that he's already on his way.

While he doesn't know how to tell us when he needs to go out yet, he knows to wait until he is outside to do his business.  As an added benefit, he always goes within seconds of us taking him to the designated spot.  A major plus given the temperatures as of late:

To be honest, it's probably because it's so cold that he goes so quickly, but I'm not complaining.

Clyde and Cody are not best of friends yet.  Clyde is way too over-eager for Cody.  I give it a few more weeks.  

Clyde's first class tomorrow!  I'm so excited to see him reunited with his brothers and sisters...

Maximum Cuteness.

About this time, everyone has written about their year -- reflecting on the highs and lows.  I have so much to catch up on, I'd rather just share some of the memories from the past week.

Starting with these two...

Can you believe how much they have grown??  Can you believe how beautiful they are???  The picture cannot capture how smart, sweet, and hilarious they are so just trust me when I say they are pretty incredible 6 year-olds.

Of course, we capture a lot of video during our holiday with the family.  Unfortunately, we haven't been able to edit it together yet -- stay tuned.

In California, we were busy with our families, eating good food, enjoying our gifts, and sharing quality time with our loved ones.  We even had time to take a quick trip to Big Bear for some skiing!  

We headed back in to "chilly" Minneapolis last night and woke up bright and early to pick up little Clyde.

Our little service dog-in-training has been a great addition to our household so far.  He's super-smart -- he already gets that outside is for potty and has consistently gone within 10 seconds of us taking him out.  The frigid cold air may have something to do with that, though. We also hear that he already sleeps through the night.  Time will tell.

He doesn't quite seem to get how dog beds are supposed to work yet, but I'll chalk it up to first day fatigue.

Happy New Year everyone...

Pupkallah.

You know what looks kind of like babkallah but is infinitely cuter?

A PUPPY PILE!  They are at 7 weeks now and most of them will be going to their homes on Friday.  Can't wait to find out which of those golden little furballs is going to be our buddy for the next two years.

Birthday Babkullah.

A couple of months ago, Man Boo and I were flipping through an issue of Bon Appetit when we both let out a little gasp upon beholding the "babkallah".  Knowing the decadence and elbow grease required for this concoction categorized it as a strictly special occasion endeavor, I made a mental note to make it for breakfast on Jamie's birthday.  I also knew that one way or another, it would find it's way onto this blog -- most likely as one of those "nailed it" fails.

Fortunately, not only did it come out edible...

...it was actually pretty tasty!  Couldn't even take this picture without first tearing off a piece of it to try.

While I don't think I'll be making it again (did I mention the elbow grease?)...it did tempt me to try out making straight-up babka which I had never heard of before.  I'll just have to wait for another special occasion...next holiday season?

Puppy Update! (PUPdate??)

Remember when those puppies looked like this?

(Yeah, they're named after different colors for now)

After 4 weeks, they looked like this...

Then...at 5 weeks...

...and as of yesterday, they had their first outdoor adventure.

I should note that I haven't met the puppies yet.  All of these pictures were taken and shared by their caretaker (momma dog's owner) and fortunately, she's a prolific and excellent photographer.  I cannot get enough of these puppies.

Puppies are supposed to go home the day after Christmas.  Unfortunately, Man Boo and I will have to wait a few extra days to meet our puppy since we'll be out of town.  Can't wait to meet the little guy (or girl).  

Last Month, Tonight.

I'm so out of practice with this blog thing.  Here's a quick recap of the last month...

Los Angeles.  When we left off, I was in LA doing work during the day and spending quality time with my parents at night.  We even made a trip to Las Vegas over the weekend for a mini-vacation and to take advantage of a free room with a Las Vegas-y view.

Thanksgiving.  After a quick trip back to Minneapolis, I hopped back on a plane for LA again...this time for Thanksgiving festivities.  Managed to pull off a pretty tasty Thanksgiving together with the whole family.  Man Boo came through with the brave and skilled lowering of the turkey into blazing hot oil...

...and 56 minutes later we had a delicious spread.

As usual, it was great to be with family.  Of course, we played a Calvinball-esque version of ping pong.  Needless to say, Man Boo lost 318 to 0.

Got older and baked a lot.  Flew through Minneapolis to get to Boston for work the next day and celebrated another year of life.  Never mind that I totally forgot how old I was turning.  That's what happens once you pass thirty...Upon coming back home I immediately set out to BAKE for our annual holiday/birthday party the next day.  I think I made enough cookies.

Clockwise from left: glazed lemon cookies, sweet and spicy nuts, chocolate crinkle cookies, and peanut butter blossoms.  I should note that this is not even half of the cookies I baked.  Jamie insisted that I bake 142 peanut butter blossoms because apparently every single person at our party would want one or two.  That, folks, is how much I love my husband.

Work, work, work.  Throughout all this has been some really busy work time.  Still loving the job, but it's sort of kicking my butt these days.  After weekly travel for the last month and a half, I really enjoyed my first full weekend at home and am looking forward to my first full week here too.  Minneapolis has been accommodating by giving us some 50 degree weather.  

Next post: PUPPY UPDATE!!

Minnesotan.

Last winter, people assured me that it was unusually cold.  "The coldest winter in my lifetime!" they said.  "If you can make it through this, you'll be a true Minnesotan!"  I smiled and wrapped my new winter coat tighter around myself knowing that this was simply a "trial by ice".  The spring finally did come and it was followed by a really glorious summer.  I felt good about surviving my first winter in Minnesota and felt even better knowing that this upcoming winter wouldn't be as bad...

What the eff, Minneapolis???

So maybe it's been cold all over the U.S.  In fact, for the first time in many decades all 50 (!!!) states went below freezing last night.  And, the rumor is that it is actually going to be a pretty mild winter this year.  It's just getting all of the cold stuff out of the way early.  So we hope.

In the meantime, here is a video from yesterday of the puppies to warm your heart.  They're getting so big at two weeks now!

Helping Paws.

So here's something!  After a lot of deliberation, Man Boo and I made the decision to foster a service dog!  Crazy, right?

We have always wanted a dog.  Despite having two cats, we're both "dog people".  Sadly, the kind of dog that we wanted (i.e. the frisbee catching-type) was never a realistic option because we did not feel we had the time and space to provide a good home for one.

The stars began to align when we moved to Minneapolis and purchased a home with more space and a backyard larger than a postage stamp.  They aligned further when I realized that working from home provides me the time and flexibility to provide care for a puppy.  And finally, when we met Tango...

...at the Helping Paws demo at the Minnesota State Fair this year, we really began to think much more seriously about the possibility.  After plenty of research, sitting in on training classes, and conversation we took the leap and put our application in.  

A couple interviews, references, and a home visit later we were invited into the Helping Paws family as foster parents to a puppy from the upcoming litter of Labrador puppies.  "Our" puppy was born on November 5th...

Mommy dog gave birth to 10 puppies and while we don't know which one will be ours (for the next two years or so) we do know that he or she is somewhere in that heap of adorable.  

I'm probably going to obsess over this puppy for a while, so I hope you all are alright for puppy overload in the next months.

The next question, of course, is why a service dog?  I'll save answering that question for another post...

Look Who's in Town!

President Obama is enjoying the awesomeness of Minneapolis!  This is actually Jamie's view from today's event, but Obama will be speaking tomorrow in our neighborhood -- a short walk away.  Sadly, I don't know that I will be able to see him in action since I have work, but part of me is hoping that all of my meetings will mysteriously get rescheduled in the next few hours.  

Despite living in Capitol Hill for several years, it feels more special knowing that the President is going to be so close now that we live in Minneapolis.

Isle of Skye to Glasgow.

Last full day in Scotland!  With our Scottish breakfast in our bellies, we started the journey from Isle of Skye to Glasgow.  We drove through scenic mountains and past Ben Nevis and stopped at Stirling Castle, our last castle of the trip.

And we got treated to a double rainbow over the William Wallace Monument...

Once we got into Glasgow, we tried to make it to the Cathedral in time but just missed it.

So we walked over to the Necropolis instead which turned out to be a pretty neat way to see Glasgow.

The next day, we were on our way back to the US and the next evening we were binge-watching Game of Thrones.  Scotland truly was a great destination for us and actually fit perfectly with what we were hoping to get in our 9 days.  All-in-all, a perfect vacation.

We Interrupt This Recap: 7 Years

This has been a pretty big year for us: new city, new house, new jobs...and while we have weathered lots of storms (mostly the meteorological kind) in the last 7 years, I have known so much love and happiness with this husband of mine.

Happy 7th Anniversary, Man Boo.

Isle of Skye

Isle of Skye was just plain gorgeous.  We somehow managed to have some pretty spectacular luck in that it rained pretty consistently while we were driving, but once we got somewhere we wanted to walk and take in the sights, the sun came out.  

We were staying outside of Isle of Skye in Kyleakin so we had a short drive to get to Portree.  On the way, we somehow spotted some signage for a yarn store.  Given all of the sheep we had seen on our trip, I was surprised at how few yarn stores there were -- this was the first that we saw.  While I jokingly mentioned it to Jamie, he immediately turned into the driveway and we had a chance to take advantage of a pretty awesome find.  

I left with two big skeins of yarn from Scottish sheep (which had just been dyed the day before).  From those two skeins I made: (colors are a bit off in the pictures, but they were a light green and cream color)

This cowl...(which Man Boo so kindly modeled)

This kid-sized hat to donate to Kiki's Hats...

And this cat toy that is already pretty well-loved.

All-in-all, a pretty fortunate find!  We then continued our drive to Portree for lunch and some window-shopping.  A lovely little town!

Then we began some of our walking excursions.  Our first stop was Faerie Glen.  Which, if you ever find yourself in the Isle of Skye, I highly recommend.  It was pretty spectacular; Jamie proclaimed it the perfect "fairy tale" spot.  It kind of was:

Basically, it was a bunch of rolling hills that you could wander through using the paths that the sheep carved out.  There wasn't much to stop you from going wherever you wanted.

After Faerie Glen, we continued our drive north to Uig and the Quiriang.

Rather than climb the Quiriang (we were short on time and stamina), we hiked up Bioda Buidhe which offered us some pretty great views of Quiriang.

(For the record, Jamie is actually a lot higher up than it looks in these pictures, those tiny white specks are sheep )

And, finally as we made our way back south on the eastern side of the Isle of Skye, we stopped at Kilt Rock (you can see the kilts on the rocks in the distance -- past the falls).

Another glorious day in Scotland.