28
Jul
This is:
1. Darn funny
2. Accurate representation of a husky brushing
3. Amazing…that there was no howling! Stormy doesn’t stop!!
26
Jul
…and says “See…I’m not the only husky that thinks car rides are way better than walking!”
Funny huskies :)
This is a very pretty bag…and since it comes in this beautiful blue-ish color (of which I have NONE so I should!) called Storm! And since my little husky is Storm…
Storm singing that Mom should own this bag :)
– shouldn’t my next bag be too ;-)
Balenciaga "City" in the color "Storm"
Feel free to peruse (or even better have one shipped to me anonymously ;) )
14
Jul
Have seen this e-mailed joke for several years but I always giggle…and know it’s true!
Life really boils down to 2 questions…
1. Should I get a dog…?
Dog
OR…
2. Should I have children?
Child
Luckily my 2 huskies are so perfect – makes this an easy question ;-)
Angelus puppy
Storm puppy
29
Jun
Today was a fun day! I did sleep in till about 7am like a lazy slack! Huskies said HOT outside already Mom! I took them down to a forest walk so it was mostly shady so they could stay cooler. They had the same reaction today that they had last fall on this same walk – something wicked this way is! They smell a bear? Or a dead body? Ghost? Angelus is afraid of nothing (ok, well…bees…) and he was acting strange and not wanting to continue on down the path. And Storm had less than zero interest in continuing. So I of course made them continue on…but then was imagining a scary movie…where the dumb girl makes her dogs keep going down the scary path even though every person watching the movie is screaming at the screen to listen to your dogs!!! So we turned around :)
After doggie walk and coffee and email..I went on my hike. About 6 miles with 3 of it straight uphill. Beautiful though. A great hike. The goal was making it up to Hawks Peak. And I did :)
Hawks Peak view 2
There was still snow in some of the higher elevation areas. And the best part – I saw 1 biker in the distance but other than that – came across no one. Very peaceful. It was windy up on the tippy-top rock at Hawks Peak so I had to be careful not be blown off the rock!
Hawk's Peak View 1
I was using my iPhone app TrailGuru and it said about 6 miles and almost 2 hours but then my battery died – doh!! Good thing I didn’t run across any bears and need the phone camera!
Then it was lunch (turkey burger!!) and sun/tanning time! I just started reading James Patterson’s “8th Confession”. I realized today as I was going through my stack of books that I brought that I *always* read a James Patterson book on my vacation. So I moved it up in the priority pile :) These are always fun summer reads. This is the Women’s Murder Club series he does. I really like this series. ABC made a short-lived TV series based on it last season which I also liked. But not as much as the books obviously. Although Angie Harmon (who played the main character – Lindsay Boxer) was quite likable. I find his books, and this series in particular, to be very fun reads. And when you are baking in the sun, “thinking” books are not always the best (Milton Friedman’s “Capitalism and Freedom” is next in my pile…might get pushed down for “Gossip Girl” till after vacation..)
After sun time, it was chore time – laundry, cleaning guest bedrooms used this weekend, vacuuming house (I am ALL FOR 1 story houses btw…truly….stairs suck), hosing off deck pollen & spider webs (Angelus was VERY happy with this), and taking the garbage and recycling out to the bear box for pick-up day tomorrow. Now…I considered “accidentally” dropping garbage in the driveway and entryway to “accidentally” attract a bear or 2 (they LOVE and know when garbage day is – very smart bears!)…but I didn’t (dang it!)
Then we did another short buddy walk. I wore flip flops when I did this…unwise…I stabbed my foot on a big stick. OUCH! Bleeding!!! Crazy that the buddies can walk on all the sticks and rocks like they do. What pansy feet I have :)
I set myself a time limit on chores so it was time to make dinner and pick a movie! I made my tofu spaghetti – yum! And watched “Doubt”. Good movie. Not as dark as made out to be…but perhaps that is because A) I like the actors (Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams) and B) I’m not Catholic. Good watch though.
But now just about time for sleepy so I can do it all again tomorrow :)
Today was day 2 of Tahoe vacation and Birthday Season (although technically I think Day 3 of Birthday Season there was plenty of lunch and cupcake celebrations on Friday!)
Took the buds for a fun walk at Donner Lake. We got a late-ish start around 7:30am so it was already pretty sunny and warm. Because of this, we did the easier, flat lake walk so the buds would get plenty of shade and lake time. I think it’s only about 2.5 miles but we did lots of stopping for sniffing and chipmunk chasing so it was about 1.5 hours of fun husky time! Angelus was slightly annoyed when I wouldn’t let him keep the dead chipmunk he found. No husky kisses from him today :) This is a nice, mellow trail. Good for the fluffy monsters when it’s warm and sunny out. Lots of access to the lake for wading in and plenty of trees, rocks, critters, etc to explore and sniff.
After the doggie walk, I relaxed with my coffee, read twitter and watched GAC. It was nice to not have to rush anywhere. Then Helen and I went for a hike. The weather was perfect hiking weather – warm, partly sunny, nice fluffy clouds that came in and cooled you off along with a nice breeze. We got a little over 1.25 miles in when husband called. His bike riding friend had fallen and punctured his arm and needed to go to the ER but left his wallet at our house with his medical cards, ID, etc. They were over an hour away so needed me to bring the ID. Dang….hike cut short :(
After getting ID to them, H and I went to Gar Wood’s in Carnelian Bay on Lake Tahoe. One of my FAVORITE places for lunch and drinks. They are famous for their “Wet Woody”. The best way to describe it is a peach Jamba Juice with plenty of light rum mixed in and a 151 rum shot floating on top:
Wet Woody!
Their lunch menu is delicious. I’ve never had anything there I didn’t love but I’ve repeated the sliders and fries several times. Today was no different!
Sliders & Fries!!
Other *very* yummy things there are the mahi-mahi tacos. And their garlic bread with gorgonzola cheese! And the zuchinni sticks.
We hung out quite a while. The weather was just so perfect and it was so relaxing. Oh, and we ordered another order of garlic bread with gorgonzola! The people here are usually nice, normal people out for a nice time and lunch. This time we had a bit of people-watching…The couple next to us were soooo obnoxious and ick. Pretty much everyone else there were as flabbergasted as us. The woman looked either beyond drunk or way high on something else. She was sitting on her boyfriend’s lap and they were making out – right there on the restaurant deck for all of us to see – and then feeding each other food (and not doing a very good job of it.) One of the comments you could hear from the girl “Why are you talking? Stop talking. You know I hate when you talk so much.” Ummm….so sweet…..thankfully they left. I know mean and superficial…but neither person was attractive in anyway so this made it all seem so much worse and annoying.
Then we walked down to the beach in front of the restaurant in search of the cute golden retriever puppy we saw go by! But he was too fast with his dad so we didn’t get to skoosh him :( But the views are just so awesome. I know I am spoiled living on the NorCal coast and it is very, very beautiful. But I do think I prefer the mountains, trees and lake view:
Then we went home and hung out. Husband and his friend Robert played Guitar Hero (I giggle at that myself…)
Guitar Hero-ing....
Tonight husband drove back home with our friends and it’s just me and the huskies for 3 days (then he will be back for my official birthday and long weekend.) The huskies are relaxing on the deck now that it’s cooler while I watch Law & Order: Criminal Intent and type this – crazy party girl…I KNOW :) But I need to get up and get those huskies out early to beat the heat!!
p.s. of course I was stuffed full after lunch until now…at 10:30pm…dang it!
27
Jun
Friday night we got up here up around 12:30am…pretty late for me!! I was very tired since I woke up at 5am. Once here, we unloaded the car, got ready for bed and finally got to sleep around 1:15-1:30am.
Angelus barked at me to wake up around 3ish…he *never* does this unless he has an upset tummy. But he did not. He had no interest in going outside to pee or anything. So I went back to sleep. Then he woke me up again a short time later. Again, he did not want to go outside the front way to pee. He wanted to go out on the back deck. I was exhausted so I just let him out and said good night.
Then he woke up husband around 4am and was going crazy running from the back deck to go out at the front door. We are pretty sure he was tracking a bear or coyote outside as he simply doesn’t get that excited about a raccoon or smaller critters unless he is actually chasing them – DAMMIT! I wanted to see the bear!!!! Next time! It’s been almost 2 years since I saw the bear in our driveway – I am due!! :)
I woke up at 7am and took the buds on a walk for an hour. Then it got too hot for them. Pretty sure Stormy gave me the paw. Then it was vacation-coffee-mode on the deck in the sun :) I love sitting out on the deck facing the forest. Very peaceful, pretty and the forest smell is amazing. Mandy came over about an hour later and Helen woke up and we eventually rallied to do a 6-mile hike where we found this alien pod:
Alien Pod
Not sure what is was. But had fun convincing ourselves it was poisonous and might kill us all on touch if we touched it (we were clearly dehydrated by this point ;) ) So I moved it out of the path with 2 sticks….where it dropped. Lesson 1: do not put me in charge of the nitro-glycerin. After giggling at ourselves we continued on and finished the hike unscathed by the alien pod…oh yeah – we did name it John :)
Mandy and me looking out over Donner Lake
Helen, me and Donner Lake
Got back and laid in the sun for an hour or so reading magazines and chatting. We opened up a bottle of Brut and a great time was had by all!
Later we had a yummy sushi dinner at Yoshimi Sushi in Incline Village. This is one of the several rolls we go that were not on the menu. This one is called the Lucky #7:
Lucky #7 sushi roll
You can link to my Yelp review from a previous visit on the front page of my blog (under Lifestream.) I HIGHLY recommend this place!!!! But then again, not so much that it gets too popular and I can’t get seated :)
Now I am in a food coma on top of 5 hours of sleep, sun and hiking…so I think this party girl should go to sleep by 10:00pm on her first day of vacation in Tahoe :)
I *had* to swing by Stanford Shopping Center today so *had* to swing by Sprinkles since I had to walk right by it to get to my car…after I strategically parked in the first spot available closest to the Sprinkles door…
I purchased 2 cupcakes for me: a red velvet cupcake and a peanut butter chip cupcake. The red velvet I don’t even need to discuss as we all know they are DELICIOUS! If you have never been to a Sprinkles, but feel like going..get a red velvet. Don’t muck about with other flavors – just go straight to the heart :) Once you are hooked, you can be adventurous and add other flavors to your order.
Now, since I am a Sprinkles veteran (what? why are you looking at me like that?) I added a peanut butter chip to my order. If you don’t like peanut butter that much – just pass this one by. HOWEVER, if you are like me and love peanut butter – GET THIS! OHMYGOSH – so peanut-buttery!!! This thing was delish – highly recommended for peanut butter fans. Each bite was a like eating a spoon full of peanut butter but mixed in with cakey goodness. Nomnomnom!
Of course, no visit to Sprinkes is complete without pupcakes for my boys. If you get these for your doggies…ummm…remember to take the paper cup off first…luckily I got it back form Angelus and got the paper off :)
Pupcake for Angelus!
Pupcake for Storm!
I’m fairly certain there no cuter dogs in the entire universe :) They thoroughly enjoyed their treats…and asked where the rest of the dozen were :)
Priceless :)
17
Jun
I took the boys in to get groomed today. They were scheduled to go in last week but then Angelus got hurt so I re-scheduled for today. So I let them get extra sandy and wet at the beach yesterday and today :)
I took them to a new place for us. Normally, a friend of ours has been doing it (she does it for a living up in SF) but she can only do it on Sundays and it’s just been super-tough to schedule a Sunday afternoon for the both of us.
The place I found is close to work so I can drop them off in the morning and just run over and grab them when done. Seemed simple! They also sell my impossibly hard to find dog food, Eagle Pack. So double bonus!
I Yelped the place so that I could see what has been said about their grooming (they also offer doggie daycare.) Or, if they hadn’t been reviewed yet, I could be the first one (dork!!) hehehe…but they did have reviews. And the reviews about the services were fine, but there seemed to be a couple issues with communication about pricing, timing, etc. So when I called to ask what they charged, I asked specifically what they did for that charge. Also how long it would take. The girl I spoke to said the charge was $68.00 and that would be for a bath, blow out, brush out, nails clipped, ears cleaned, teeth checked and a “hygiene clean” if needed (the huskies would not have appreciated that!! She said it would take about 6 hours. She asked me when they were bathed/groomed last and I told her. She asked if they were up-to-date on their shots and told me that I needed to bring in their vaccination certificate. It all seemed very organized.
Now, I have paid $45-$50 per dog in the past. But that didn’t include ears or teeth plus this place was very convenient so I thought the premium was acceptable.
When I dropped them off today, I went over the check-in with the girl at the front desk and explained Storm hates being brushed so make sure they weren’t too rough or impatient with him. I asked what time I could pick them up and she said would call me but expect about 6 hours. And then I left (and boy was I sad…it was like it must be for new parents leaving their kids at daycare!)
So 6 hours later at 3:30 I called as I had not heard from them. They told me to come around 4:00-4:15pm. I showed up at 4:15 and got some dog food and went to the counter to pay. The groomer’s assistant was the one helping us at the counter. The groomer walked by with another dog and asked if we were sure they were huskies and not malamutes. I said yes, they are pure huskies. She seemed shocked and said they were so big and fluffy. She was eastern European or something with an accent that made her tone seem very clipped so not sure if that was a joke?
Then the assistant told me my total and it was almost double what I was quoted! WHAT? The groomer then interjected how she had to spend a lot of hours on them as they had very thick and matted fur and I said yes, I know that, which is why they were here. She then said well maybe if I brushed them regularly, it might not be as bad. Or if they got groomed more regularly. I told her they get groomed twice a year and huskies don’t typically ever get more than that. And that I DO brush them (Angelus more than Storm) but obviously a good bath is what gets the fur up and able to come out better.
I added it was hardly fair to to just charge me an extra $60 per dog without asking me first and that this was not how to run a business. She said well, she had to miss another appointment to spend so much time on them. I said I specifically asked the cost, what is covered and how long and was quoted $68 for a full wash, blow out and brush out in the 6 hours – which was basically how long they were there. And if they knew it was going to cost more than that, they needed to call & ask and not just assume someone can afford a double charge like that. She said well, just see them and see how nice they look. I said I had no doubt they will look nice but they looked great when they got groomed for $50 too. She said well maybe I should take them there next time. Then she added that she should have taken her other appointment instead.
To say I was shocked at how this woman was treating a customer is an understatement. Clearly this woman was not an owner and she didn’t care if I ever came back.
At this point I turned around to pay and the the assistant looked mortified. She was on the phone trying to get a hold of the manager. She did and got the extra “de-shedding” charges waived. She then kept apologizing for the groomer’s rudeness. She was obviously embarrassed. She was being very helpful and polite. I paid the original quoted fees (plus for the dogfood) and I gave her a cash tip and told her it was for her. No tip left for the groomer.
Later this evening, the manager called me. She said she had heard everything that happened today when I picked up my dogs and how the groomer had been to me. She said she wanted to apologize for everything and let me know that she was leaving a gift certificate for me to use there anytime I wanted. I told her that was very nice but unnecessary as the grooming assistant had taken the charge off and apologized. She insisted I use it and said that she really wanted to make sure I was happy with the service and to let me know that she had sat her staff down and went over this situation as it had come up before and it was not acceptable. I told her I was happy with the dogs and appreciated the call. I hung up thinking that was really a good way to handle a customer.
So folks, note to business owners and managers – customer service is key. I walked out of there this afternoon thinking I would likely not go back if I had to deal with that groomer again but now I would consider it. And the buddies do look and feel great :) The grooming assistant said Storm did howl & talk quite a bit (I did warn them) but she said quite normal and even on the “quiet-ish” side compared to other huskies! And Angelus was a perfect gentleman the entire time…what a buddy :)
Angelus all clean!
Stormy all clean!
