Sabrina and Matt Rockin' the East Coast!

After talking with my mother today on the phone for over an hour, she thinks that matt and I are nuts because we are packing a 20 day trip into a week! I told her that no, we were not, that our itinerary is quite normal, its just that we don't move like snails like she and dad does.
Just in case you are curious, here is what we'll be up to:

Sunday, July 27: Land in Manchester at 5:10pm, pick up rental car, check-in to hotel and have dinner with my parents. We're hoping to have dinner at Silver Maple so we can get our Pu Pu Platter for four fix. Maybe squeeze in a trip to Wal-mart so we can get munchies for our road trip to Maine the next day.

Monday, July 28: Our first wedding anniversary! We'll head to Maine to stay at the Nonantum Resort. This day isn't really planned other than we'll relax and enjoy the Maine seaside.

Tuesday, July 29: After our complimentary breakfast, we'll head down to NH and pick up my mom for a day of shopping (on her, of course!) Then we'll stop by my friend Ang's house to see her new baby, Carson. Matt hasn't met her oldest, Charlie yet either. Ang was my MOH! Then we'll have dinner with my parents again.

Wednesday, July 30: Its Boston day! I'm finally taking Matt to Kelly's Roast Beef for some good roast beef sandwiches and more fries than you could ever possibly eat. Then we'll be on the T to Newbury Street so he can get his Newbury Comics fix. Don't know what else we'll see, but we'll be happy just to walk around. After a few hours we'll head home to have dinner with my parents again.

Thursday, July 31: We're trying to talk my parents into going Candlepin Bowling with us at Leda Lanes, but they're both crying that they're too old and arthritic to roll a 2lbs. ball! We may still go and then have a quick lunch with them. At 1pm we're meeting my friend Anthony and his BF Greg at Canobie Lake Park. Its a tradition that we have to ride the carousel first! We're hoping to survive the trip and head back to Merrimack for dinner with my parents... again.

Friday, August 1: I'm trying to talk my parents and Matt into doing the Bud tour because at the end you get 2 free beers! Matt doesn't drink so he could give his to me, and then my dad can't drink (doctor's orders) so he could give his to me and then I'd have 6 free beers! Wouldn't that be great? And they open at 10am for tours. I don't think anybody but me is keen on the idea but either way we're chillin' with my parents in the morning and then heading back to Manchester in the afternoon to hang out with Ang and Julie, who is flying in from Virginia. We plan on hitting up the liquor store and then hanging out on her back porch thinking about college days. LOL. Matt and Dave, Ang's husband will most likely retreat to play with the Wii.

Saturday, August 2: We fly out at 3pm so we'll have some time to say good-bye to everybody in the morning. Ang is having a BBQ with some of her and her husband's friends (most of their wedding party will be reunited) and all of my bridesmaids will be there. I'm sure it will be bittersweet.

And then at some point before we leave we have to hit up King Kone so Matt can get a frappe ("Where the hell are the milkshakes?") and I can get a small chocolate in a cone with cherry dip!

Some of Matt's Favorite Things!

Sitting on the couch the other day, I saw one of our cats, Vlad, do something I've never seen him do before - put himself in an empty box and try to claw his way out! I called Matt over to see since it was his empty Pepsi box and the following pictures took place:

Busy Doggy Weekends

No real pictures from this weekend yet since our digi cam died. I'll have 4th of July pictures once I get my film developed and the pictures scanned in.

This past weekend Luna was very busy! Friday was Kirkland's 4th of July parade. She did excellent! She even got a patriotic bandana for participating. Matt took pictures from the sidelines. The crowd loved her. People kept saying "Look at that little dog!" or "Look! A Corgi!" It was great. She did alright with the thousands of fireworkds going off in our area too (they're legal).

Saturday she had a Corgi Meetup at Edmonds Dog Park which is on the beach. She has a boyfriend now! His name is Baby, an unneutered male of course. She was even trying to get him to play! She did really well with the other Corgis there too and even let them get by her face. We stayed out on the sandbar too long and got stranded. Poor Luna did not want to walk through the knee-deep water. She got all four paws in and promptly turned around! Once I got the leash on her she was fine. We'll definitely have to drag Matt there the next time there is low-tide.

Today she came with us to Mill Creek Town Center. Matt went to the camera store to buy us a new digi cam, a Nikon Coolpix, while I took her to Paddywack so she could check it out. She loved it and again she got lots of praise, "Is that a Corgi? I love Corgis!" She got to pick out some chew bones and then it was off to the dog park.

Here are some pictures from the dog park today with our new camera, of course!

Miss Luna has another busy weekend coming up! On Saturday, not only will she have a vet appointment, a pre-health exam before she stays at Doggy Haven while we are in New Hampshire, but we're both taking her to Poochapalooza up in Marysville! Then on Sunday she has another Corgi Meetup at Marymoor and we might swing by the Mill Creek Town Center again for their Mill Creek Festival. This year they are going to have a Pet Plaza with Dock Dog Diving!

Rescuing Kittens and a High Ropes Course!

Whew! What a day yesterday turned out to be! The day started out like any other day. We slept in, took the dog out, fed the cats. It was on my first big walk of the day with Luna that was interrupted by Matt standing out in front of our condo waving to us. Turns out he had been looking out of our office window, we're on the ground floor, when he saw two kittens huddled outside in front of our neighbor's car. He went out to check on them when they got scared and disappeared up in the car! Thats when he saw me walking by with Luna. I quickly tossed Luna into the house and ran to our neighbor's unit. Luckily we knew who's car it was. Our neighbor came out, popped the hood and was able to grab one kitten, which promptly bit me when it was handed over. Luna was so excited about her new playmate when I brought her inside. Don't worry, I rescued the kitten from Luna and put her in the bathroom.



The other kitten took awhile to come out. Matt baited him with cat food and treats while I tried to find a shelter to take them. I called PAWS first, but their phone system is just a never ending tree of voicemails. The recorded message did recommend that I call 911 so I did. An officer called me back and pretty much told me to do what I've been doing. He said Animal Control only works M-F 9am-5pm. How convienent. He did give me his work number in case I could find any where that would take them because his neighbor runs a small animal rescue group out of her home.



So after lunch I take Luna on another walk, well, our second attempt on her first one. We got as far as the road that runs parellel to our complex when Matt started shouting again for us. The second kitten had come out and was secure in our bathroom. When I went in to check on them, sure enough, he was snuggled on top of his sister, all wide eyed and dirty.



We ended up driving them down to PAWS. They had no problem taking them and assured us they would be well taken care of. We have high hopes for them since they are kittens and everyone seems to want kittens versus an adult cat (except us).



About an hour after we dropped the kittens off, we headed out to my co-workers 25th birthday party at Carousel Ranch. She had a western themed party. We had a nice time chatting with my other co-workers that were there. My co-worker also gave us a tour of the ranch and we got to meet her horse, Clayton. Unfortunately, there are no pics from this event because our digi cam broke and we've yet to replace it!

We could only stay for 45 minutes because we had to head over to Cottage Lake Park for our high ropes course event at the Northshore YMCA Staff Picnic. We did the Odyssey Course there with another co-workers two (grown) children. I did it even though I am afraid of heights! Again no pictures, but here is an old news article that has a picture of the course: http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/dnrp/newsroom/newsreleases/2006/october/1013CottageLakeParkChallenge.aspx

I was fine with everything until we got to the top and then I thought it wasn't such a good idea anymore! I did learn some things about myself though, mainly that I work better when I'm on my own and not in a team. Of course, I was too scared to let go of my own rope to hold on to another rope with anyone else!

After our exciting time at the picnic we came home and took a tip in our pool. Ahh, living the conod life. It has its benefits!

Next time I'll tell you all about Luna and I walking in Kirkland's 4th of July Parade!

Doggy School Graduation

Luna graduated from Doggy School tonight with flying colors! Her automatic sits were a little off and I almost had to correct her drop (laying down), but in the end she got a PERFECT score! Next week we start Advanced Obedience. Keep your fingers crossed that she gets along with the other doggies.

Sabrina and Luna after the first part of her test.

Bear sat next to Luna everyday for our 8 week class. He has a big head.

Furry 5K Walk and Luna's First Bath Pictures

Here are the pictures from the Furry 5k Fun Run and Walk:

Sabrina and Luna with Kerstin and Ollie.

We made it!

After the race, Luna got a free massage!

Here are some official photos from the race in a slideshow:

http://www.brittneybollay.com/slideshows/furry5k/

We also gave Luna her first bath today! She was a stinky doggy and had lots of dirt from all the dog parks we've taken her to. She did great. Didn't complain at all. Ah, the joys of adopting a retired show dog! We even bought a new detachable shower head just so we could bathe her at home.

Kitty Pictures are Here and They are Fabulous!

Our online gallery from dane-dane photography is now up and running! There are so many great kitty portraits up there that I don't know how Matt and I are going to choose. I almost want to order all of the Fidel ones since he is the reason why we had the photo shoot to begin with. There are tons of Vlad, of course, since he is so social and was a big ham that day.

Just in case you're not sure who is who, Nikita is the Siamese, Fidel is the black one and Vladimir is the grey one. He is most likely a Chartreaux and not a Russian Blue.

Here is the link: http://web.mac.com/daneanddane/Horton/Kitties.html#grid

You have 90 days from today to enjoy it!

Busy Weekends

Is it finally time to rest? We've had some very busy weekends over the past few weeks and they are only going to get busier! We didn't travel for Memorial Day weekend, but Matt and I still kept ourselves busy. I entertained myself by cleaning and organizing, mostly organizing our condo. I also convinced Matt to rearrange our living room to give us more space and it worked! We have so much more space to play with Luna and the kitties now.

Speaking of the kitties, they had their big photo shoot with dane + dane photography on the 22nd of May. Amelia was their photographer because she is the "cat guru" and after our shoot we can tell why. Vlad was a camera hog! He really liked her dangly earrings that she flashed at him to get his attention. Nikita and Fidel wanted to just sleep, but I think she got some pretty good shots of them. She even took a few snapshots of Luna because she was just too cute. dane + dane photography is involved in City Dog magazine's cover model search and I might just take Luna to one of their scouting sessions this summer. We should have the pictures of the boys back by this coming Thursday the 5th, so I'll post the link when I have it!

Well, its almost finally here, the Furry 5k Fun Run/Walk. Next Sunday Luna and I will be waking up early once again for a fun walk around Seward Park in Seattle. We've only raised $80 so far, but I think with the current gas prices and economy we didn't do too shabby. In the fall we plan on participating in the PAWSwalk 2008. This one is held at Magnusun Park in Seattle and the money goes to the PAWS animal shelter where we adopted Fidel and Vladimir from. We'll most likely be walking with our Corgi friends as a team.

Speaking of Corgi friends, Luna actually played with some Corgis at our monthly Corgi meetup at Marymoor park! She tried to get in on the action of two Corgis playing by running with them. They didn't pay any attention to her but it was nice to see her get out there and be a dog.

Thats all for now! I'll have to update you after our big walk!