San Francisco Trip!

I'm going to keep this short on words and let the photos do the talking. So here are some highlights of our Valentine's Day/Presidents'Day weekend trip to San Francisco!

Included in our trip were the SF Exploratorium (like a please touch museum), wine/chocolate tasting near Haight and Ashbury (birth of the Grateful Dead and hippie rock), complimentary wine tasting hour at the hotel, Valentine's Day three course prix fixe dinner which included champagne and chocolate-dipped strawberries, Alcatraz and an awesome assorted shellfish lunch at Pier 39 and strolls around Fisherman's Wharf. All-in-all, a really amazing weekend! Too bad my weekends are going to be jam-packed from here until Memorial Day weekend :-\

Puppy Update!

As frustrating as the past few days have been (I knew raising a puppy was going to be a lot of work, just never imagined what it'd be like running on an average of 3 hours of sleep per day), I think Woodstock might be settled in our house!

Two nights ago, he slept in his bed around 8 p.m., and I thought we had acclimated him to his new home, but at midnight started (baby) howling, crying and yapping. So I gave in and let him sleep in my bed a second night - at 4 a.m., I'd rather sleep than train him good habits.

But last night, J.D. was on puppy duty, since I had to broadcast a baseball game at Stanford at 5:30 p.m. I guess the little guy was trying to lay on all our blankets, so he gave Woody his puppy blanket and he was out like a light! He didn't even cry at night. He just slept on his blankie and when I woke up in the morning, he was even snuggled up inside his "carrying case" bed. I'm really proud of him! I think the separation anxiety (as many puppy training literature have called it) might be over. He's probably realizing now that even though we leave during the day, we come back to him and play with him at night and he's not going to be neglected.

...Or maybe it was the spoonful of peanut butter I gave him in his bed yesterday at lunch that made him accept his new bed and not mine ;) Alright, I think I've blogged about my puppy long enough now, I'll try to get back to interesting topics! And I'm hopefully going to get back to at least 6-7 hours of sleep a night.

Being a puppy mommy is exhausting!

First off, let me say that I am in love with my dog! He's so tiny and so cute and warmed up to us really quickly. I feel bad though, because he whines when I'm not in the same room as him and whenever I'm around, has to stand right on my feet so I won't leave him. This is something having to do with him being uprooted from his family and is probably sort of in shock. I would be too if someone bigger than me took me away from my home.

But he was a really good boy all day yesterday! On the drive home he cuddled up with me and slept part of the way or licked me the other part. The entire hour drive he did not once get car sick or cry.

When we made it home he passed out and napped for a bit, but I didn't want him using up all his sleep in the day instead of at night. So I coaxed him out to play a little later and the little guy wouldn't stop! Woodstock was 2-for-2 when he ran halfway across the room to use the puppy pad several times to relieve himself! So I know that he's paper trained at least, but I can't for the life of me get him to go outside. This morning as soon as I woke up I took him and for 10 minutes he did nothing but run around and play, or lay down in the dirt. As soon as we came back inside, he went on his pad.

But the biggest struggle, and this will come with time, was sleeping. He won't sleep in his bed. He cries when I'm in my bed and he's on the floor. I tried to let him cry it out, but it kept getting louder and louder. Everything I've read says to let the dog cry because he'll learn soon enough that he has to sleep on the floor. If you pick him up, he'll come to expect it. So I would let him snuggle with me for 15 minutes until he got sleepy, then I put him in his own bed. That would last for about 45 minutes before the cycle repeated itself.

But I had to work this morning and I was up until 4:30 a.m. and decided f-it, I needed to sleep. So I let him in bed for about two hours. I'm thinking about keeping his bed in the bathroom tonight and ignoring the cries this time (I know crates are an option, but they're $100+ everywhere I've looked! I don't know if that's worth it for the few weeks/months of training).

My other problem is that he won't eat. I thought maybe the bowl was too big for him, but that's not the case. He won't take treats (reward for going on the puppy pad) and he won't eat crushed up food. I'm hoping this, too, is due to anxiety/nervousness about the move and that in a few days he'll be back to eating again. Today's Woodstock's first vet trip, so wish me luck!

Is it nap time yet...?

Meet Woody!

Woodstock comes home on SUNDAY!! And since no one else is going to request to see more photos of a dog that's already been sold, the breeder sent me all the photos she's taken of him.

He's so tiny and adorable! I CAN'T WAIT!!!! :)

Baseball Jobs

A media relations position recently opened up with the St. Louis Cardinals. I considered it, but really, I don't want to relocate to Missouri. I looked into it and I feel like the job is very low paying, intern-y crap. I think I've been working professionally in sports long enough at this point to not continue applying for intern positions. I know you have to start somewhere if you ever want to work in a professional sporting organization, but do I really want to be running copies and making coffee all day? How is that ever going to showcase my skills?

Plus, I can say this now because everyone I talk to already knows, but J.D. has been applying for a job in New Orleans that should be starting in a few weeks. I don't think I should make any future employment plans until his stuff is figured out.

...It would be nice to work for a MLB team though, especially since the team's coach, Tony LaRussa, lives in my city and Mark McGwire is going to be the hitting coach this year!!!

Good thing I'm not blogging daily this month

As you may have guessed from my sidebar Twitter updates, we got a puppy!!!

He's from another Sacramento breeder and is still a long haired miniature dachshund. This weekend, he will be eight weeks old and looks tiny enough to be younger! He's about 3-4ish lbs and is sooooooo adorable! We get to pick him up on Sunday and have 99 percent decided on calling him Woodstock, but I might call him Woody when I get lazy ;)

Meet my soon-to-be baby, Woodstock!! I'm so excited to bring him home, only five more days!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Done with media guides for the year!!!

I am FINISHED making media guides for the 2009-10 school year! And it is a good feeling. With that, baseball season is here in one week. Here's the cover of my guide as well as the interactive entire guide, designed, written and compiled by yours truly.

It feels nice to be done :) My days might be a little bit more free now....?

Welcome to the Rock

I've been living in or near the San Francisco Bay Area for nearly my entire life. And for some reason, I've never been to Alcatraz. I've missed out on elementary school field trips there or something, don't know. It's something I've always noticed and have known about my whole life, but figured it was touristy and I am not a tourist.

Well not anymore kids. This weekend, I am going to be a San Francisco tourist!

With the exception of a group of 10 of us after prom - I'm going to be staying in my first hotel in The City. For Valentine's Day/President's Weekend we're leaving for SF on Sunday morning and staying until Monday afternoon.

We're probably going to the SF Exploratorium since they have two things that we think are neat: an exhibit on the science of baseball (!!!) and a special Valentine's Day "Ultimate Date Tour" where you learn about science and love, emotion tracers to the brain and even whether or not you and your "date" create finger "sparks." It's totally dorky and right up our alley. (Or is that just me?). Then we're trying to find a place to eat dinner - so far we have reservations at a sushi/seafood place in the Nob Hill district, but I'm still trying to see what's out there. And we might close out the night at a wine bar! But the best part about our hotel is that they provide a complimentary wine tasting hour with our reservation, so that's always an idea :)

Then once we grab some breakfast and check out Monday morning (can't believe I actually get a day off!) we're going to take an early boat out to Alcatraz and then head back to the pier or Fisherman's Wharf for some clam chowder in bread bowls :)

And with any luck, our puppy viewing on Saturday night goes well and we can take one home when they're ready to leave mommy on Feb. 22.

Enjoy the long weekend, everyone!

What's a girl to do with a three-day weekend??

After we play Sac State at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 13 (and don't forget seeing another puppy after), I get two days work-free in honor of past presidents!

I mentioned to the boy yesterday that I wanted to go out and do something fun with our days off! So the only realistic two-day weekend trip was something like San Francisco or Monterey.

Turns out there's lots of neat things going on in SF on Valentine's Day, so I'm hoping something works out! The California Academy of Sciences has a "late night closed doors tour" that involves a candlelight dinner and wine tasting. I found a place that does couples cooking classes and wine and there's even some funky lingerie fashion show that sounds super modern and bizarre and awesome.

But the best part (which, I'm 99 percent sure I won't be at) is Pillow Fight 2010 - a flash mob in San Francisco that takes place at 5:45 p.m.

Description (taken right from the website)

1) Tell everyone you know about Pillow Fight!
2) Tell EVERYONE YOU KNOW about Pillow Fight!!!
3) Nothing in your pillow but pillow.
4) Don’t hit anyone without a pillow.
5) Don’t hit anyone operating a camera.

Feathers will fly at this fun, flash-mob type event. Leave it to a place like San Francisco to host the most visible incarnation of the Pillow Fight's flash-mob-esque gathering, and subsequent public pillow fight. I would say that a safe thousand people were milling around Justin Herman Plaza at Embarcadero and Market Streets in Downtown San Francisco.

Just kidding

I put too much in the last search, obviously, because the other lady wanted her and i'm super upset a second time.

Yeah there are other breeders out there, but they are more expensive (full AKC puppies, we don't want to show or breed though) and we'll have to wait longer. Two weeks to a month and two weeks to be exact.

I really fell in love with Gracie.... And I feel like we are sooo ready for this. Guess I should stop looking because obviously I get my heart set on something and dive headfirst in all the time.

Bummer.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I'm Ready!

I'm ready for one of these little guys :)

The meeting with the breeder went well last night. We actually met up in Sacramento near some little frozen yogurt shop and a giant Target shopping center. Turns out, someone had already come by and swooped up Walker, so the only long haired puppy left was Gracie (the one I originally liked!). And WOW, I can't even begin to express how much cuter she is in person than in that photo.... and I also didn't expect her to be soooo tiny! And sooooo adorable :)

So the meeting went fairly well. The one small problem is that I fell in love with her! I say problem because some other woman expressed interest in Gracie before us, and she has another dog. So she wanted Gracie to meet her dog and see how they interact, etc. Apparently that meeting went pretty well too, but she has to call her husband (he's on the road) and see if he'll be ok with another puppy. They're supposed to call the breeder back today or tomorrow with the decision.

I'm crossing my fingers exceptionally hard he says no. Because if that's a no-go..... we're next in line!!!!!! Well, we would be once we get back from our basketball road trips this weekend. And I know what you're thinking, J.D. and I travel a lot with our sports.

But I compared our schedules for the rest of the year, and we are both gone at the same time during ONE trip.... May 21-23. So that's a long time from now! And there'd always be someone home with the puppy every weekend!

I'm so excited about this. We even got some minor supplies at Target last night to puppy-proof the house (no actual dog supplies yet, probably waiting until we finally have one).

As I've been saying the past few days.... I really hope this works out!!! (But in the event that it doesn't, she has another litter of puppies about two weeks old right now, that will be ready to come home in March, so we'd be first on the list for those babies!) We also found another breeder in Sacramento with pups ready to take home in three weeks and she has this little guy I've started eyeing (who looks sort of like this, but younger):

Basically, a puppy is in our near future.... I hope :)

"1,000 people freezing their butts off to worship a rat"

Groundhog's Day. A very strange American tradition on this day. Even weirder is France's La Chandeleur, jour des crêpes, celebrating today's Catholic holiday (note: I am not Catholic, so I don't know a whole lot about this one).

But the saying goes in France on crêpe day, people should start the morning holding a coin in their writing hand and with the opposite hand, flip a crêpe into the air (in a pan, obviously). If you can successfully manage to flip the crêpe back into the pan, opposite side up, you will have great luck and prosperity throughout the new year. Unfortunately, I never actually was able to celebrate this tradition when I was living in France a few years back. But I did get to partake in a lot of neat festivities.

What's your tradition today?

Apparently I'll be celebrating Groundhog Day by checking out.... wait for it...... a "groundhound" as they're affectionately called. (Get it, because dachshunds have such stumpy legs and are hound dogs?)

Dog breeder lady finally got back to me last night!! Apparently some other couple wanted the female, Gracie, and they went to go meet with her yesterday. But now they aren't sure which they prefer - the female or the male. We had our sites set on the male, Walker, but honestly, I think both are super adorable and would be quite happy (UNDERSTATEMENT) with either! So today we're just going up for the scouting report.

Honestly though, this couldn't have been any better timing. I had given up the thought of hearing back last night, so I started sorting through adoption websites, farther breeders, foster homes, kennels, anything I could find in this area. The other breeders are asking for MUCH higher prices, almost more than anyone else I've looked at across the country. And most of the adoption/foster clubs pretty much find new homes as soon as they place ads up online. That route is extremely competitive too, as every dog needed to be applied for before even seeing it or talking to its current "owner." I was getting so disheartened in my search since J.D.'s now finally ready for a dog..... I couldn't find one we liked!

But now, maybe the road's downhill from here? I'll let you know after tonight! Not to get ahead of myself, but in taking some good advice, if we like what we see tonight we're heading straight to Target to get the place ready in anticipation for a new little friend early next week :)