a99kitten's Musings

We got up to Tahoe last night but it was after 11pm and really dark out – no starry night or bright moon to light the way. Of course, the huskies wanted to go for a walk as soon as they got out of the car. Since they are stuck in the car for 3-4 hours on the drives up, I usually take them no matter what time we get in. Just a short walk down the street so they can sniff everything, pee on stuff, say HI to Tahoe :) But last night we could only go a short ways since it was really, really dark out.

And normally when we get here, I let Angelus out on the back deck so he can play in the snow but husband didn’t want me to do that since it was really heavy snow, and had rained a bit on Thursday which made it icy and it was going to be a pain for him to remove, and Angelus paw prints and husky-dug holes everywhere supposedly make this harder as they harden/get icy. I don’t necessarily believe it will make that much of a difference with the snow blower but he is responsible for snow removal so it’s up to him.

So needless to say, Angelus was annoyed. He was like “you bring me to the snow and then I can’t play in it???” He even tweeted about it! :) So this morning, bright and early, I had a wet nose in my face :) Took the buds out for their short walk after their breakfast and brought Storm back home when he wanted. Then it was Angelus time! We walked pretty far (about 1.5 hours), met Jake the GIANT lab and Cash the sweet pit/boxer mix. They liked Angelus a lot! Cash even started to follow us away from his house – doh! We also met 2 Russian guys on our walk and they loved Angleus. Every time we meet Eastern European people, they really fawn over the huskies :)

Anyway, on our loop back home we climbed the snow mountain (about 12’+ up) in our greenbelt area and I let Angelus off leash…

Now we are home and he’s a much happier husky :)

This weekend I bought myself some new sneakers and workout pants. Well, workout meaning dog walking. I have exercise gear for doing my stepper indoors. But I need a whole different set of clothes for dog walks/hikes. They need to be warm (but then not too warm for the not-as-cold or bright sunny days), able to get rained or misty-fogged on, able to deal with wind, pockets for dog treats and poo bags would be exceptional although I’ve given up on pants having these. I use a zippered pocket in my jacket for my phone nowadays. After sacrificing a couple old phones to the Pacific that were held in non-zippered pants pockets…I’ve finally learned. Also I must thank Verizon’s insurance/replacement program…AT&T is not so grand that way so I am way more careful.

I have some pants from Lululemon. Yes…the overpriced yoga pants. Mind you, I don’t do yoga. There is not one chance in hell I have the patience for that. I tried it once. Pretty much bored out of mind and hated it. Also – stinky. Blech. I’m just not meant to be that Zen I guess. I wanted to like it, but meh. I’ll take outside with the dogs any day. But I do like LULU’s magic ass pants. I can see why they charge so much for them. They make you look great! No kidding! Not so much that I’d buy the stock since I don’t believe there are THAT many women who will fork over that kind of dough for exercise pants (although they have basically replaced the Juicy outfit as the Mom-out-and-about outfit) and have to think they have just about hit their full reach, plus have Athleta to contend with now, but what do I know. I said that when they were at 40. I just refuse to buy the stock at the price they are at now. I’ve read how they are expanding and will possibly offer their stuff in large department stores and that will help sell more but still, I think, expanding the $100 magic ass pant market might not be as easy as they think. Crocs got really big too….although let’s be clear – these pants are WAY cuter. So I say no to the stock for my portfolio but I will still buy the magic ass pants. Hmm…I could buy more than 1 share of stock for every pair…but I’ll get more value from the pants. Of this I am certain :)

Because they were $100 magic ass pants, I do not wear them on dog walks. Why? That’s a damn good question actually. When you think about it, I wear my dog walking clothes every single day. Every day for the past 10 years. But I look for cheap bargains on the clothes. Why? I’ll spend hundreds of dollars on shoes and sweaters and even more on bags that I wear just a few times. But something I wear every damn say, I chintz on? That’s dumb! I am going to start wearing them.

So this weekend, I bought a new pair of (hopefully just as) magic ass pants from Athleta. That’s The Gap’s new(ish) foray into the magic ass pant business. The problem I found with their site is that it looks like a lot of the pants have momma rise. YUCK! WTH? The 2 pairs that specifically said low-rise were sold out in most sizes. Why? Because girls like low-rise!!! So make more!! I have this same problem with snowboard pants and husky walk rain gear and even regular pants. STOP with the high-rise momma pants!!! YUCK!!! Double-YUCK!!

Anyway, I paid the full price for a black pair, since the sale color (which was an awesome chocolate brown dammit) was all sold out in every size but XL (which shouldn’t actually be made in yoga pants but that’s another story.) These are supposed to be the “winter” version. They are lined so you can do outdoor activities and be warm. We’ll see. They show a girl snow-shoeing in them. Ummm…yeah. Have you been out in the snow? But I assume they should work for doggie walks here?! Crossing fingers and paws. And if so, I might just buy a couple more pair. Yes…spend the money on the activity I do (and enjoy!) every day.

I also bought a new pair of Reebok Easytones. I was just thinking it was about time to get a new pair of walking shoes and then the huskies made it easy for me….they took me down a very gloppy muddy hill this weekend. Gloppy muddy like my entire foot sank in. Nice. We were running down the hill so no time to worry about the mud. It is just mud :) We all sank in but they could just run into the ocean afterwards and clean off – little boogers! BUT…it did push me over into the “time to get new shoes” camp. Bummer is I just let a 20% off ‘come back to us’ coupon from Endless. Oh well. The color I wanted was on sale so that worked out. I got the light gray…with a little pink stripe :) Gray should hide the first few layers of sand and dirt!

I do love Endless.com. I ordered them Sunday and they shipped today. I will have them tomorrow or Wednesday. And that fast shipping is free. As is return shipping if I don’t love them. Awe+some. Yes – same as Zappo’s BUT they will actually put their stuff on a real sale, unlike Zappo’s. Not to say I don’t like Zappo’s – I do. And now that AMZN owns them, they can offer the stuff at full retail and people can pay. And some of us will find 80% of the same stuff on endless for less :) And if not, then buy it at Zappo’s. As an AMZN shareholder, all good to me.

Now I just need a new pair of rain pants that aren’t too bulky and big. And then I think I’m set for awhile. I found a pair on Backcountry.com tonight and the first reviewer complained how low-rise they were – PERFECT!!! SOLD!!!

It’s important to be functional AND cute :)

Please forgive my winterized, gopherized front yard. But Angelus loves it :) He’s been hoarding this bone since Super Bowl Sunday. What buddies.

It was howling wind and rain this morning. The huskies didn’t seem in too big of a rush to go out. I thought “Yay – no wet and cold walk for me!” But once they ate their breakfast, they charged for the door. Doh. Ok…out we go. I wore my bright pink J Crew rain boots this time since my sneakers took 2 days to dry after the last rain walk. I looked pretty sexy in my mismatched rain outfit…in that “there is no way you could look any unsexier” kinda way ;) BUT – I stayed warm (ish)!

Storm doesn’t typically like to go out in the rain so I figured it would be a short walk. Angelus? Well, he would make an excellent postman. Rain, sleet or snow – he doesn’t care! But the huskies (both of them!) wanted to go to the beach. Sigh…ok….we are already wet at this point so we might as well. It tapered off to a light rain and then rained off and on the whole way there. We got to the beach and the wind was blowing and even the harbor was pretty choppy. Low tide was just starting so there was some more beach to run on and a TON of seagulls hanging around.

I let the the huskies off leash and they took off – both of them! To chase the birds and each other! Stormy was running around and having a good time!! Yay! He got a bit cheesed up in Tahoe last weekend since he can’t stay out in the snow as long as his brother or go in deep snow due to his naked belly. He wants to go out a lot but then gets cold after like 20-30 minutes so I take him on a lot of short walks and not the deep snow running Angelus gets. So I was very happy to see him running around on the beach having a fun time!! I wished I could have videoed it but it was raining and my phone was safely stashed in a pocket :( Would have been a very cute video!!!

It started to rain harder so we decided to head back. No one (including Angelus) is a fan of the sideways rain. Although I will have to say, when you wear rain boots you can have a lot of fun jumping in big rain puddles :)

We aren’t going to Tahoe for this new snow storm today, which makes me pretty sad. Who knows if it’s the last big snow of the season? But husband is driving up from San Diego where he was picking up his newly-made surfboards for an upcoming surf trip to Portugal. He was going to swing by here and get us and we’d all drive up to Tahoe. But the storm is just hitting now and he doesn’t want to take the extra time and get stuck in the traffic and snow. But he doesn’t want me driving up in my car alone since I have high-performance tires and not snow tires (don’t get me started on that) which means I wouldn’t go till tomorrow AM sometime. And that just seems silly to then come back Sunday night or Monday AM. Especially since I want to be there during the snow! I don’t know why people don’t get how much I love being there as it is snowing – not only when it’s all over. *pout* But I think Storm might be OK with is since it’s also supposed to drop to about -2 and possibly even colder up at our house. He says brrr with missing fur!

Plus CalTrans says do not drive up there today – wait till Saturday. Bad weather. Heavy snow and wind. Alert. So you absolutely, positively know some ass clowns in their Prius’ and Hondas and other teeny tin cans will be heading up and causing traffic at chain control and likely spinning out into a snow bank. Good times.

So the huskies and I are desperately hoping we get to see a snow flurry here! It can happen. I think highly unlikely (I am truly AT sea level so it would be a rarity!) But I do believe the huskies are working with some powerful forces to get it here :) So we will stay awake late and up early to try and get the coldest parts of the night/morning to see if their magic worked….crossing fingers and paws!

I almost didn’t take today off. My original plan was to take last Thursday and Friday off to have a 5-day President’s Day weekend with the snowstorm dumping tons of snow on Tahoe. The snowstorm had been predicted by the local weather guys for a couple weeks so I was looking forward to it. Tahoe hasn’t really gotten much snow since I the Christmas/New years craziness so I was very excited to get the huskies (and me!) into some fresh snow. I was going to leave Wednesday night for 5 days of snow!

Then some stuff came at work and I didn’t feel comfortable not being there Thursday or Friday. The CEO said it was OK to take off but I felt like I shouldn’t. Then the weather changed a bit and the heavy snow was coming Wednesday and Thursday so I was bummed to miss that. But they closed the highway so had I left Wednesday night after work, I would have been stuck in the closed highway and probably got up there at like 3am. I would have been tired and grumpy. The CEO insisted he could do just fine without me (that might be a very bad thing for him to realize!) on Friday so I planned on leaving the office around 11am after getting some stuff done and that way still missing any holiday weekend Bay Area traffic plus the snowstorm coming that night.

I did leave at 11am and sailed through the Bay Area (avoiding the as usual accident on the Bay Bridge and taking 92 to 680 to 80 instead) as well as hitting no traffic through Fairfield, Davis, Sacramento, etc. Was actually kind of weird for a holiday weekend Friday. It was pouring rain the entire time so maybe people didn’t want to drive in it? Hit the mountains and rain turned to sleet. A little more up the mountain and sleet turned to snow. And clear sailing turned to loooooong line of traffic inching along at 2 mph. It was traffic created by all the goobers that drive their little tin cans up to the mountains during a snowstorm and so they need chains. Ugh. Go rent a 4-wheel drive SUV if you plan on coming here during a snowstorm.

Anyway, it only added an extra 75 minutes or so. Not so bad considering I was hearing the previous nights’ drives were taking 8 hours or more. Yeesh. So I didn’t get much fun use out of my day off but did get up to Tahoe before the crazy storm that hit us on Friday evening/night. White-out conditions driving around town. And our street had 1 skinny lane of plowed snow through it. It was very Shining-like :) And I think they closed the highway again. BUT, the storm was done by late Saturday morning so it’s been sunny with a mix of high clouds ever since. And no snow falling. Boo. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a complete winter wonderland up here and the snow plows are just now getting all caught up with the roads and there is so. much. snow. But I love to watch it fall too.

So because I didn’t take Thursday off, I decided to take Tuesday off. But then have been going back and forth about it all weekend because the next snow storm coming isn’t coming until late Wednesday or Thursday so I’ll miss fresh snow falling so maybe just use my day off for a 3-day weekend next Monday or another upcoming snow storm. I pretty much decided to not take it off and just drive into work Tuesday AM until late last night. Changed my mind right before bed. Like literally, my mind just switched gears. Had been packed and everything. Decided to take advantage of the snow here and now and can always take another day off if I want for the next storm.

This was a very long-winded, convoluted rambling way to say pretty darn glad I did….

Angelus and I were out for about 2 hours this morning. He was running around back and forth and then we turned around and ran the other way and jumped through untracked snow like a deer! Then rested and “drank” snow and ran some more! I thought I was videoing that too but turns out my gloved finger didn’t press the start on that. Boo. It was damn cute. But I got to see it and Angelus got to live it :) It was 9 degrees when we went out. His kind of weather :) But then it warmed up to 15. We were both pretty hot in the sun by the end of our journey. He had a great time and is now happily sleeping and getting ready for the next outing this afternoon :)

Definitely a good use for a day off :)

On my way to take Angelus out for his 2nd walk this morning, I took an excellent digger on the icy entry way. I’m sure it looked pretty classic. Knee and hand smacked down on the icy stone. Cut on my hand. The instant sharp pain in my knee made me want to cry but Angelus coming over and sticking his nose in my face to see if I was OK made me smile instead :) Then when I got up and said OK buddy let’s go – he walked slowly next to me as we crossed the icy part. What a buddy :)

Later on in the walk, as we were passing some houses, Angelus started slowing down and sniffing in the air like he smelled something around. Then we came upon a driveway where someone had left their garage door open, either overnight or from this AM, and you could see the garbage can tipped over in the garage next to a car and 2 big plastic bags of garbage ripped open and strewn around the garage and driveway. Oopsie. There is a full bear somewhere. Angelus was walking around slowly and sniffing the air there too.

I got him going again and we went off the street onto a trail that we like that is basically a single track right now going through walls of snow in the forest. But cross country skiers pack down the track well enough so we don’t fall through the snow. About half way into the forest on this trail, Angelus just stops cold right in front of me. And starts growling. I didn’t see anything but trees and snow and didn’t hear anything. He moved up a tiny bit and started growling again and then turned us around. At this point I’m thinking OK, it could be nothing. Or it could be the bear. Or a ghost. Either way, we’re listening to Angelus who has the better sense of smell and hearing. No one is going to accuse me of being the dumb girl in the horror movie you scream at the screen saying “listen to the dog!!!” right before she gets mauled or killed.

So we took the same trail back and as soon as we got back to the road, Angelus immediately took us in the direction of home. I decided he can be in charge of this walk from here! So we got home safe and sound, no more icy falls, no bears and no ghosts. And now I have hot coffee. We’ll try again later :)

This was upon arrival yesterday :)

And this AM

And more playing!

I have about 1/2 of a handful left of these at home. The huskies want to know what kind of Mom am I to let our supply get that low?! These are their FAVORITE bite-sized treat (Greenies, Happy Hips chicken jerky and Dingo bones all tie for favorite larger treats!)

Since we are low, on our walk this AM, I brought along other treats to mix in with the few yummy chummies and Angelus spit the other treats out. Literally took it in his mouth and then spit it out on the ground (where Storm proceeded to apply the 3 second rule and picked it up and ate it happily.) What buddies.

I like giving them because they are made from salmon, are natural and made in the USA! I’ve tried to get away from all non-US made dog food, treats, toys etc (Dingo bones being the only exception.)

These are great because they are soft treats so can be broken in half and shared (the huskies say what the??) I use them as treats on walks and we take long walks every day so they get a fair amount of treats. This way, broken up even into 4 small pieces, they don’t actually get so much food (no wonder we are starving they say!)

The only downside to them is that they break apart (being fresh soft treats) in your pocket if you leave any in there, so I use a small plastic baggie to carry them in my pocket. I put the crumbs on top of their food and they love that too :)

Anyway – anyone looking for a very healthy and good treat – get these! Angelus is rather picky and he loves them! I’ve been giving them to him since he was a puppy and he still loves them just as much. Storm…well…he is less picky and will eat just about any treat ;)

You can find them in pet stores but they sell the much smaller bag and the mark-up is fairly high. I found them on Amazon and you can get free shipping when buying from Amazon (and not a marketplace seller who also offer them on AMZN.)

Your doggie will love you :)

This is their website:

This morning the huskies and I had another excellent beach adventure! We wandered through the neighborhoods and then made our over to the beach. Storm’s friend Charlie was there and he seemed pretty happy to see her :)

I don’t let Storm play with just any dogs off-leash. I have to know them or watch them play for awhile. Storm needs the perfect mixture of just out-going enough to be fun and crazy but not aggressive or too alpha as that gets Storm going on his “need to prove I’m boss” (well…under boss really since everyone knows Angelus is the boss dog!) Plus we want to be nowhere near the bitey, agro dogs either. He definitely does better with girl dogs too. No need to be dominant at all.

Charlie is great! She loves to run and play but is super sweet and fairly submissive. So I let him play off-leash with her. This video is the first couple minutes of what was about 40 minutes of them playing today, along with Angelus and their other friend Pearl. Vry happy to see him wanting to play more and more with other dogs and being back to his happy self. :)

Fed the huskies
Had a super fun beach walk (2 beaches and about 8 new doggie friends!) for almost 2 hours with the huskies
Checked and answered work and personal email
Had some coffee and tweeted and facebooked
Cleaned Gypsy’s (kitty) house and water fountain
Swept back deck from mass wind/tree carnage
Removed spider webs from front of house (waiting for the spider’s revenge…)
Cut some tree branches on front and back trees that were knocking into the house last night and today from wind (and waking me up last night!)
Did 3 loads of laundry
Washed all of my make-up brushes
Put away my new La Mer stuff :)
Removed stuff and cleaned up spare bedroom since husband decided to use it for his piles (wrong pal)
Cleaned up garage just enough to put that stuff there. Garage is husband’s mess – not mine – to deal with.
Swept garage – sand is mine and the huskies :)
Paid bills
Balanced mine and husbands’ various checking accounts
Put stuff away that was in small piles around the house. I hate piles. Might kill husband for piles some day.
Hung up my coat from yesterday that was still in car which led to me cleaning out coat closet and taking out 4 coats to donate. Ahhh…room.

That’s enough for now. Time for reading in the sun with absolutely no lazy guilt…will attack all of our tax stuff for Monday’s accountant meeting tonight or tomorrow. When it’s not prime sun….and I don’t have a new Vanity Fair and Vogue staring at me to read them :)