Mark & Mandy

Mark and I are getting ready for our first holiday’s in Colorado. We put up two trees this year and I had mark hangin icicle lights outside in freezing weather (yes, I know Amy and Julie don’t care for icicle lights). Turns out the wind in our area blows the lights into the gutter – very frustrating. This year our tree has red berries and poinsettias with our ornaments. And of course, decorations aren’t complete without tons of bowls of Ikea ornaments!

When my parents were here my mom, a crabby mark and an excited Mandy created our sky skape on the wall of our fireplace. Poor Mark had to balance on a very tall ladder to install my curtain rod at the top and then hang all of the ornaments on clear fishing line. Everything was up and put away and while having a beer and admiring the wall, my mom and I realized we had an empty space – so out came the ladder and an even more crabby Mark. But it was worth it – the sky scape is a perfect addition to the red feather trees.

This is also the first year that I have my shopping done and wrapped – even stocking stuffers! Mark and I put in two good nights of wrapping – we of course were assisted by Lola and Cricket. While not nearly as helpful, they added lots of energy. Lola is totally freaked out by wrapping paper tubes and talking through them. BONKERS!

We have all enjoyed listening to a Classical Christmas on XM Radio (866 – for you directTV’ers). Happy Holidays!!

P.S. I know this blog is pretty Lola heavy – but Lola is a camera hog – when you turn it on, she sits and poses – its hard not to keep them coming.

Mark and I are getting ready for our first holiday’s in Colorado. We put up two trees this year and I had mark hangin icicle lights outside in freezing weather (yes, I know Amy and Julie don’t care for icicle lights). Turns out the wind in our area blows the lights into the gutter – very frustrating. This year our tree has red berries and poinsettias with our ornaments. And of course, decorations aren’t complete without tons of bowls of Ikea ornaments!

When my parents were here my mom, a crabby mark and an excited Mandy created our sky skape on the wall of our fireplace. Poor Mark had to balance on a very tall ladder to install my curtain rod at the top and then hang all of the ornaments on clear fishing line. Everything was up and put away and while having a beer and admiring the wall, my mom and I realized we had an empty space – so out came the ladder and an even more crabby Mark. But it was worth it – the sky scape is a perfect addition to the red feather trees.

This is also the first year that I have my shopping done and wrapped – even stocking stuffers! Mark and I put in two good nights of wrapping – we of course were assisted by Lola and Cricket. While not nearly as helpful, they added lots of energy. Lola is totally freaked out by wrapping paper tubes and talking through them. BONKERS!

We have all enjoyed listening to a Classical Christmas on XM Radio (866 – for you directTV’ers). Happy Holidays!!

P.S. I know this blog is pretty Lola heavy – but Lola is a camera hog – when you turn it on, she sits and poses – its hard not to keep them coming.

This one is for Martha Olbrys… Lola has suffered a pretty bad bout with Kennel Cough. Poor thing has had the shivers, an upset tummy (she, like her mom, can’t take medicine on an empty stomach) and a hacking cough. She wouldn’t eat so we found ourselves trying anything we could – including wet cat food and chicken noodle soup.

We were a bit out of sorts by the whole thing, so we would get up early in the morning and bring her into our bed for some cuddles (this is usually a no-no). Here she is looking pretty pathetic.

Yesterday she finally felt like her energetic self chasing the cats and chewing on random items, and hoping to sleep in bed and eat people food. I am a sucker for her eyes, so without Mark knowing I am letting Lola clean my plate – actually she would be a good dishwasher if you didn’t mind dog drool.

We have finally kicked our 3 round with Kennel Cough – we will be avoiding Day care for the rest of the year. 

We finally took our trip to New York City to see Mark’s Dad and some old college friends. It’s been over 3 years since our last trip, so the visit was long overdue.

We flew in Friday morning on a waaay too early flight (courtesy of Mark), and took a cab into a snow covered New York. Michael had been organizing a cocktail party for that evening so we just hung out and did a quick trip out to buy supplies.

The party was a great opportunity to get together all the people we hadn’t seen in years in one place and it went fabulously. More evidence that hiring a bartender is the best money you can spend at a party. There were some of the usual suspects who we last saw at our wedding (see Martha Olbrys, Julie’s Mum pictured with Mandy). In addition some of Mark’s friends from Stanford came along (Harad, Kulman and Heysse), Greg D who was in NY for work, and even Reid MacLean, whom Mark went to school with in the first grade! After the party we all went out way too late to dinner at Docks and didn’t get done until midnight… much later than we usually eat!

Saturday we woke up feeling a little the worse for wear and had a lovely relaxing morning with croissants and tea and then got ready to go to see Edith (Mark’s nanny from long ago) who lives across town. Edith fed us some of her wonderful fried rice and we were serenaded by Justin, her 5 year old grandson who is quite the musician!

After catching up with Edith, the three M’s (Michael, Mark and Mandy) went downtown to see Rockefeller Center and visit Kate’s Paperie to look for some unlined journals – which turn out to be frustratingly hard to find! Rockefeller Center was an unbelievable crush of people, it took at least 10 minutes to walk three blocks down 5th Avenue to get there from where we left our taxi marooned in traffic! The tree was fantastic and we got a lovely photo of it that appears in our Christmas newsletter that is in the mail (no, honestly, it is).

Once we got home we had little time to relax and get ready to go out on the town. For weeks before the trip we had been discussing what to do for Saturday night with Guy, Todd and Matt. But with a week before we were to arrive, Todd heroically bit the bullet and booked us at Pepolinos, a lovely little (though recently expanded) italian trattoria in Tribeca.

We started our evening by touring Guy and Todd’s lovely apartment on the upper west side (not too far from 500 West End Avenue). And we got to meet Lauren, Todd’s long-time squeeze who we both agreed was a fantastic person (Todd traded up!) From there we went down to the Brandy Library, which was very civilized where we had a few martinis/gimlets/sidecars etc. before braving the cold for a 3 block walk to the restaurant. As I said, the restaurant was top notch and seemed quite inexpensive for a well-regarded New York eatery. We met Matt Harad there.

After dinner, we found our way to the east village where we took over a booth at the Hi-Fi bar and spent the evening playing Galaga and drinking more than we needed to. We had a guest appearance from Subbudh (Guy’s freshman roommate) for the evening which was a wonderfully random element. Greg D even caught up with us at the bar for a fabulous evening. Of course, the next morning I was cursing the 4am bar closing time, but at the time, I would have wanted to be anywhere else.

Sunday morning rolled around somewhat cruelly, but Michael kindly volunteered to go wait for a table at GoodEnoughToEat a few blocks away, which was just what the doctor ordered. We spent the rest of the day taking it easy in the apartment. Mark set up the Airport Express and new multifunction printer and put some things up for free/sale on craigslist to start chipping away at some of the excess equipment currently filling up 500 WEA. We had dinner with Brooke and Norman and then went to be early as we had yet another stomach-churningly early flight (6am this time – Mark, will you never learn?).

We can’t say we got much rest, but we did hit the city right and promised it wouldn’t be another three years before we returned!

This morning we woke up to freezing temperatures – today’s high is 8. Poor lola has to use the outdoors to do her “business” – she bounded in half way through (don’t worry no mess) wimpering and not wanting to touch her paws to the ground. Brrr.

I had an early morning dentist appointment right next to “Struttin’ Pup” a very fancy schmancy pet store. Now Lola is the proud owner of “Hot Dawgs Pet Boots”. When I put them on she acted as though she couldn’t walk, but they were very useful once we got outdoors.

The trick is to keep them on her! Here she is ready to pull a sled! 

Somebody has a skin owie on her leg and can’t leave it alone! Lola doesn’t seem to mind the collar, so we thought, but last night in her kennel she chewed it off. This morning she bounded out screaming “VICTORY!”

Still pretty cute! 

We have been taking Lola to Level 1 dog training after she was too old for Puppy Kindergarten. This class has a bit more structure and we learn commands like sit, down, stay, heel, walk pretty and wait. There were 3 other dogs in our class – Haley (Austrailian Sheepdog – you may have seen Lola romping with her in a previous blog), Izzy (a Cockapoo!!) and Ralfie (a standard poodle that just constantly barks). The best part about dog school is learning tips for keeping your dog out of trouble and occupied. For you dog owners here are a few:

1. Buy the Kong Konches, fill them with wet dog food and then FREEZE them. This buys you at least 20 minutes as they try to get every drop of food out – without freezing you might have 2 minutes.
2. Buy a dry food toy – you can put the dogs dry food in a toy that they have to roll around to get little nibbles. When lola is hungry she finds the toy and then rolls and rolls it around to eat – also time consuming for her.
3. Buy cheap fleece and braid it into tug-o-war toys – these will last about a day, but what fun (make sure to take it away once it starts to fall apart – we sadly found out what fleece looks like after being digested.
4. Finally – buy lots and lots of chewy’s, always have something for your dog to chew on… Lola’s graduation gift was two tennis balls connected by a blue roap. The roap lasted about 5 minutes – and then it was on to chewing up the tennis balls. Its amazing what little teeth can do.