Doggies

I took the most adorable video of our dog, Sadie, today...As I was petting her and talking to her, she was groan groan groaning, talking back to me! She does this ALL the time. We call her Joanie Groanie, as she has done this since we adopted her! She did not have a happy childhood, so I'd love to know how she came up with the groaning thing. In any case, the video camera we have is not compatible with my new fancy schmancy iMac, so, alas, I cannot show you the cute video of our Joanie Groanie today!

I told part of the story about how we came to have Sadie 3 months after our beloved girl, Lady, passed away...

The background of Sadie's story isn't so great, unfortunately. Sadly, this is the case for thousands upon thousands of animals in the United States. Don't get me started on the importance of adopting pets...It's something I'm as passionate about as fleurs!

Anywho, Sadie came from a pet hoarder in Tennessee. She and fifty other dogs were found living in this house and were luckily rescued by a group in Tennessee. Can you even imagine 30 dogs in a house? Twenty? I cannot.

From there, she spent time at a vet and then a short time at a shelter. She was then placed in foster care in a home in Pennsylvania. That's when her profile went up on www.petfinder.com, a most wonderful resource.

We found her photo, and basically fell in love with her because she looked like she could have been from the same litter as our boy, Koty! We simply could not resist!

Now, on her profile, they said she was four. Riiiiiight! When we finally adopted her and got her papers, they said she was six. Riiiiiight! We took her to the vet literally 2 days after adopting her and the vet said she was probably more like 8 or 9!! My husband thinks she's closer to 30!! Ha!

Poor thing has most of her incisor teeth missing and we found out why...We have always fed the dogs we've had dry food with a little bit of wet food on top, and we've always kept the wet food cans on the bottom shelf of the pantry. Well, little miss Sadie discovered them and helped herself to two entire cans of wet dog food. She opened them, ate all the food, and did not get even a scratch on her face. She had obviously learned to scavenge for food and was an expert at opening cans. No wonder her little toofs were all worn away; eating through metal will do that!

She now understands that food is forthcoming twice a day, every day, but is still VERY appreciative at every meal! We get VERY excited and wag wag wag during every single meal. It's really sweet!

We really lucked out. Despite the fact that our boy, Koty, wanted to KILL her the first 24 hours she was here, they have turned into fast friends! She seeks him out to lay by him, and follows him around on our twice-daily walks...He's a good big brother and has been showing her, by example, how to be a dog! She had never gotten a walk, had never learned any commands, and had never learned the joys of the head-out-the-window on a car ride! Koty has been a perfect role model, and within a month of Sadie being here, he returned to being his happy, puppy-like, care-free self. We all lucked out.

Here they are after yesterday morning's walk:


That's Sadie there on the right, and Koty on the left...Hard to know where one begins and the other ends sometimes!

And here is our adorable boy, upsidedown under our dining room table. It really doesn't get much cuter that this!

What a face!

Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King, Jr!

Today is the 80th anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther King, Jr. To honor his remembrance, here is a quote of his that rings true more today than ever:

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."

Have you SEEN the show "Jersey Shore?"

I rest my case.

In other news, the big January Thaw supposedly happened today. Unfortunately, the weather people got a little over-excited and had told us it was going to be this incredible sunny day with temps near 50. Wellllll, not so much.

It did get into the 40s, it's a decent 44 degrees out there right now, but I'm afraid it's dreary and cloudy. I did manage to get in a good 45 minute power walk, thanks to Mr. iPod. That little machine keeps me motivated! Love the iPod! Today I listened to some Kanye, Michael Jackson, Black-Eyed Peas, Duffy, Spice Girls (I know. It's embarrassing!) and Katy Perry. I didn't say it was all GOOD music! 45 minutes went by in a jiffy, I'm happy to say!

Anywho, I'm feeling rather motivated on the exercise front, as I have just 16 days until the donning of the bathing suit. Highly motivational!

I did go out today and look at the buds on the lilac trees and even saw new growth in the way of tiny leaves on the butterfly bushes in the back yard! Seems early for that, but I'm happy to see anything green at this juncture!

In other exciting news, I got me a VERY cute Tommy Bahama skirt on sale yesterday. My Aunt sent me the name of this great website, Artisan Gems Boutique, since they have some really good deals on clothing, shoes and jewelry! Here is the skirt I ordered:


Isn't it cute? Oh, and a while back, I had ordered some VERY cute boots made by a company named Sugar. No go. Boots were not available. SOO bummed out! Guess they were not meant to be on my feets.

Have a good evening, all!

January Thaw

Well, my friends, the days are getting longer, the sun is getting warmer and we are all getting ready for our proverbial January thaw. If you have not lived in the North, you do not understand the joy associated with the January thaw! Of course, we all know that winter is far from over and February can be terrible, and March can just be downright cruel, but when it get into the 40s in the middle of January? Reason for celebration!!

Everyone is talking about it! For the next four days it will be 40 degrees or more here in Massachusetts. For those living in balmy climes that sounds utterly ridiculous, but for those of us who recently endured highs barely in the 20s with a wind chill that knocked your socks off, 40 is our equivalent to about 70! Mark my words, there will be people out there running around in shorts tomorrow!

Now, I do not go that crazy, but I will be out there looking at my garden - looking at the buds on the lilac trees, and the little green shoots at the bottom of my Montauk daisy bushes. Signs of life are everywhere - even my crocuses that are in a very protected area at the front of the house have already started trying to grow! Protected by the snow, they'll be just fine until they bloom in March.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I planted many, many bulbs last fall. I think there were something like 60 crocuses and 70 tulips? Something like that! The crocuses were all shades of purple, lavender, and buttery yellow. Should be gorgeous when they come up.



Of course, when my flowers bloom, I will take photos and post them here!

In other news, I have exactly 17 days until our trip. 17 days until bathing suits will be worn. Ugh. The South Beach diet is going really well, but it does NOT work miracles, my friends!! After two years of basically eating and drinking any old thing that seemed like a good idea? Now does NOT seem like a good idea! It's funny when you make that decision to be on the straight and narrow, you wonder how on EARTH did I let myself go so much? What was I thinking? I guess I wasn't thinking, is the thing!

We'll see how it all goes - I have a full physical coming up on the 28th of January. I haven't had one in years! Let's hope the South Beach diet and the powers that be are kind to me so I can skeedaddle and enjoy our vacation!

Last thing - I know all of us are aware of what's happened in Haiti. If you can afford to donate to the cause of helping the people there, please do. Oxfam is a great organization.

If you cannot afford to donate, I believe prayers and good thoughts go a long way.

Jost Van Dyke! God Bless You!

I checked out my sitemeter this morning and saw that someone had been referred to my blog via a website called Cruise News! What a surprise! Here I was innocently blogging about our upcoming vacation and *bing* some website picked up my blabbing about Tortola!

Today I'm going to talk about some of my fondest (or scariest) memories from our stay on Jost Van Dyke, because it's heavy on my mind today, and it's one of my most favorite place on Earth so far! Cannot wait for warmth -it's totally frigid outside today, a balmy 27 degrees...With the wind chill, it's even colder. Really quite nasty!

Of course, in the Caribbean are wonderous and interesting creatures. Snorkeling with schools of tarpon feeding on small silver fish was most memorable. We were in an area of Jost Van Dyke called White Bay (one of the top ten beaches in the world according to the Travel Channel!). One day my husband and I were there snorkeling over the tarpon, watching the feeding frenzy when, all of a sudden, **WHHOOOOSH**, something dove from above, VERY forcibly, literally only about one foot from my head. I SCREAMED!!!

It was a pelican! It was apparently diving in to get some of those little silvery fish for itself! Obviously not at ALL afraid of the human swimming just mere inches from its prey!

Here is a video of a couple pelicans diving - now imagine your head just a foot away, looking downward like you do when snorkeling, and suddenly this huge animal comes barreling down into the water with NO warning! It's mighty scary, I tell ya!

Needless to say, we high-tailed it out of the water to the safety of the shore IMMEDIATELY!

On shore are many other wonderous things! Like this gorgeous white sand beach. A mile long of this beautiful stuff!


The view from the hillside. Sunsets were unbelieveable.


The Soggy Dollar Bar - called this because most patrons have to swim in from their boats moored just past the beach! Therefore, their dollars are soggy! They have a clothesline to hang the soggy dollars so they can dry! This bar is world famous for their Pain Killers. A drink to rival all others. Deeee-lish!


My favorite - Ivan's Stress-Free Bar. You go on, write down what you make yourself for the time you're there, and then you settle up at the end of your stay. No bartender, no waiting, no STRESS, mon!! It's the coolest bar on the planet, if you ask me!


Ahhh, memories! Now I must return to reality. Off to bundle up and go out to get the dogs' food, treats, and their arthritis meds. Also going to the store to stock up on goodies for the house...Amazing how much food one goes through when one has breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks from home every single day!

Tortola, here we come!

Very exciting news today! We secured our room and air reservations and the dog-sitter for our trip to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands! We have been there before on our honeymoon, several years ago when we visited Tortola for a week and then Jost Van Dyke for a week. This time around we finagled an AMAZING price on a beautiful room that is smack-dab right on the beach! The hotel is quite the spot on the far West End of Tortola, on a long, long stretch of white sand beach.

Here are a few photos to whet your whistle:




Delicious, no? Those vibrant colors and OHHHH, all the pretty tropical flowers just growing everywhere! I can't wait!

We were supposed to officially do the South Beach diet until Feb. 5th (I was going to go longer), but for a trip to paradise? I think I can do something about the diet for a while!!

We are going to be gone for a week - a nice respite from the wintery Northeast.

These are picture of the beach where we'll be staying:



Bon voyage! (Soon, anyway!)