Love Letters From a Dogwalker

Last Wednesday, August 24th, Havi had her 5th walk with RuffCity DogWalking.  Havi had been up all night with a stomachache and diahrrea.  I had emailed RuffCity to let them know I was worried, and she may be lethargic, and to love my baby up when they came to walk her.  

Here is their email update:

Wow. I don't even know where to start about today!

She was her normal excited self when I came in, seemed to be feeling great! I did notice that she hadn't touched her food though.

We were off to meet Sophie and Jax at the park! A super playful mutt named Loquita that I know well was there and they got crazy together too.

Then the park suddenly turned into a circus. A guy came in with two dogs, a shitzu and an American bulldog. He kept them on the leash and got them and the others off to a bad start. Havi led the group barking and ended up in a minor scuffle with the bulldog. It was totally fine and the guy retreated to the corner with him. Havi stayed totally away from them, even turning around when I called Come while she was getting closer. I was so proud of her!

Then bill's dogs! She ran around with all of them so happily and playfully. The energy was so intense but the pups all made the best of it

She played with EVERYONE today, to the very last minute we were there. It was awesome. Even chasing around this awesome little pomeranian.

She pleasantly surprised me with a fast pace on the walk home. Even more surprised because she laid down outside the gate to the park as we were leaving. I was armed with treats too but didn't need em!

Left her chilling on the kitchen floor with fresh water and a milkbone!

A fantastically exhausting day for all!

An Eventful Weekend!

Law Student wasn't catching up to the hype of this whole Irene thing.  That is, until Dental Student left Friday morning for his Boards.  After watching Bloomberg and Christie non-stop for an hour, it was time to get to work!  

I ran to the supermarket where I insisted I would only spend as much as we spend weekly on groceries.  We usually spend $60 via FreshDirect.  I bought bottled water (we drink tap), eggs (hard boiled eggs can last in room temperature for 3 days), chips, salsa, fruits, and veggies.  I brought it all home and organized the fridge and filled three tupperwares of ice for Havi.  Then I threw laundry in the machine (this way we would have clean clothes for a week), cleaned the apartment top to bottom (if we had to evacuate I didn't want to invite pests in), packed an emergency "go bag" (medications, identification, food for Havi and us).  When Dental Student came home he had no idea the world was ending, and pulled in all the stuff from the balcony, filled the tub with water, and packed a suitcase for us.  

We live on the water, so we had to evacuate and go two avenues over to a friend with an extra room.  She invited 4 other friends over and we gorged on pizza, pineapple, cookies, and wine for about 7 hours.  Havi was in heaven with tons of attention and love.  By the morning, we got the all clear to go home.  We spent the day sleeping and went out for BYO sushi with friends to Loop Sushi and Ralph's Italian Ices at night.  

 And this would be our wonderful host...

 Hurricane Irene's aftermath...

All in all, we never lost power or flooded.  Our parents in NJ and LI did not fare as well and lost power and their backyards are a mess.  

The net result?!  We have today off!!  Our schools cancelled classes and we are off to explore NYC!

P.S.  Thank you so much for all your well wishes and thoughts.  It means a lot to us!

Thing You NEED To Check out

Happy Friday everyone!  Havi is helping Law Student prepare for Hurricane Irene (we live in an evacuation zone) while Dental Student takes the first part of his Boards!  Tonight we're heading to night 1 of the Dave Matthews Caravan concert (nights 2 and 3 were cancelled)

Things you NEED to see:

1. Check out Two Pitties in the City and Love and a Six Foot Leash as they try to save an Elderbull, Lady Zabora.  Last time, we helped out save Shy, which led to rescuing and saving two other pitties.  Check out their blog posts to learn how you can help and win some cool prizes.  After all, 14 is the new 7 in dog years, and it "takes a village to save an elderbull."

2. Check out Two Pitties in the City and comment on their latest post because we entered the Tourist in Your Own City contest and the post was written by us!  The most comments on their blog and Facebook page about us wins!

3. Check out Pit Bull Frogs via Road Dog Tales and enter a pic of you pup in the frog pose that may be used in a calendar to raise funds for pups everywhere!  And while you're at it, give us some tips on how to teach Havi this cute pose!

We LOVE this blogging community from Havi as the Dog of the Day, featured on Pitter Patter and True Story Tuesday, winning an antler form Maisie and Me, and wining a portrait from Art By Elizabeth.  Were all lucky pups!

Love Our Dogwalker!

We started using a dogwalker, Heather, through RuffCity Dogwalking.  We wanted Havi to get a walk once a week for an hour when we have a long day.  Also, if we're ever in a bind this way Havi would know the person coming to walk her.  

She also works with Havi on training and play manners.  We had a really bad experience with Havi at a dog park, and won't go back.  But Heather takes Havi and watches the situation carefully.  

We thought we would share the emails she writes us after every walk along with the pictures she sends.  She usually identifies problems, and maybe you guys can help!  This is Havi's fourth walk.

Her happiness brighten my day :)

She did much better sitting today while I put the harness on her, and she was so so well behaved the whole walk to the park, even after she noticed that Bill and his big pack were in front of us! She sat at every corner and even stayed after I opened the gate on demand before I let her go in (that one took a few tries).

She was soo happy to have some playmates today, and was running around the place like a total alas, with no direction. It was pretty cute, until she became a bit of a bully with Bill's dogs. One was barking at her so she started doing circles around him. He eventually snapped and they lunged at each other. Both backed off and it wasn't a big deal but I put her in 'time-out', which is on the leash laying next to me for a few minutes. It's purpose is to calm her down and refocus her. She finally did and after about a minute I let her free again. I'll obviously continue to watch her habits and behaviors while we're there but I don't see today as a problem.

After that she was back to being a happy spaz and had a great time chasing the ball (but not returning it of course!).

She peed on the way there, pooped there and pooped again don the way back.

I allotted a few extra minutes for the walk home but she was almost perfect! Just a few slowdowns, but no stops and we even got to say hi to Jax and Sophie. So we had a few minutes back inside to hang out. I refilled her water, although it was pretty full and so was her food. Both are usually empty.

Movie Time!

If you read this blog, you know that Dental Student and I LOVE eating and movies!  We have seen quite a few this summer:

Friends With Benefits - Okay, Law Student HATES sappy love stories.  She also isn't a big J Timberlake fan.  But this movie is AWESOME!  Its the story of two friends that try to remain friends, but after getting involved romantically they realize its meant to be!  Totally corny, but Mila Kunis is awesome, the story line gets deep at times.  You laugh AND cry.

Harry Potter - Dental Student has seen every movie and read all the books.  Law Student is along for the ride.  He felt that they didn't give enough time to so many "important" things from the book.  But Law Student thought it made a nice story with cool special effects.  

Crazy, Stupid Love - Law Student saw this without Dental Student, and totally regrets it.  Best movie I've seen in a LONG time.  Two seemingly different story lines merge perfectly in this movie.  The casting was genius.  Its definitely  dark comedy, you cry, laugh, cringe, get angry.  There is no neat ending either.  But thats real life - and that's love.  And that's what makes this my favorite movie this summer.

Tonight we are seeing The Help, after reading it this summer in my 36 books in 2011 challenge!  Any other recommendations for us?!

Book #19!

I finished book #19 in my 36 books in 2011 challenge! 

#19 One Day by David Nicolls (4 out of 5 stars)

I read this due to a few friends recommending it on GoodReads as well as the impending movie. It seems all my books this summer are coming out as movies! Although I really actually do not enjoy love stories, I loved this one! It showed that life is really just a series of important, defining days as well as the importance of the people in them. It is the story of two lovers, who start out as friends, and the twenty-year relationship of ups and downs that led them there.

 Check out the Widget on the right or become by friend on GoodReads!

NYC Restaurant Week!

NYC Restaurant Week is one of our favorites every year!  We have heard it happens in many major cities!  Many restaurants offer three course meals (appetizer, main dish, dessert) for lunch $24.07 or dinner $35.00.  Dental Student and I love trying new restaurants we wouldn't normally be able to afford and look forward to booking our reservations through OpenTable (where you get points for each reservation)!

This year we tried three new restaurants:

Centro Vinoteca - Law Student went with her oldest friends to this trendy West Village spot.  The restaurant was recently featured in the popular movie Something Borrowed.  It was nice and quiet inside with big plush booths that were able to sit 8 of us comfortably!  The windows look out onto West 7th.  I had a mozarella caprese salad which is hard to mess up, grilled atlantic sea bass which was in a perfect lemon butter sauce and a chocolate bread pudding.  I had a few tastes of the bread pudding, but so not my thing!

Fig & Olive - We originally went on a date night to this restaurant many rave about.  Not thinking, we made a reservation for a Saturday night, where the special menu did not apply.  But we decided to indluge!  The place was a little loud but they sat us by a window and I was in heaven!    We wanted a bottle of pinot grigio and it took 45 minutes just to tell us they were out and our next choice of wine was a little warm, but once the food started coming all was forgiven!  We started with three Crostinis: (1) mushroom, truffled artichoke, and parmesan, (2) shrimp, avocado, cilantro, pine nuts, and (3) salmon, ricotta, citrus, cilantro as well as all four tartars: salmon, branzino, crab, and tuna.  I was in heaven, and a little full!  Then I ordered the Rivera Shrimp and Salmon Salad which had a flavoring I didn't care for and Dental Student ordered and finished his Paella Del Mar.  We were full, loved trying the new foods, and a little drunk!

Kefi - We went for the restaurant week menu with our dear friends, and we realized the menu at this Upper West Side Greek restaurant was reasonable and did away with the special menu!  The only major concern is there WAS NO AIR CONDITIONING.  But we'd go back in winter!  We started with a selection of spreads and calamari.  The boys had branzino for a main dish and the girls had orzo, feta, tomatoes, and grilled chicken which was AMAZING.  

It was a very successful week!

book review!

According to my Widget on the right-hand side, I had read 18 of my 36 books for the year!

Here is a review of the last three books I have read

#16 The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (3/5 stars)

This is the story of one man and his life in the early part of the 1900s in Hungary. This was an interesting tale because Hungarian Jews are not usually written about, as the country was a little different in their opinions on Jews. It was a very interesting story, especially because nothing "happened" they just lived and went through the ups and downs of the Holocaust. I cried, cried, cried. The only reason I gave it three stars is because it moved slow at times, due to the lack of climax. It was around 600 pages.

#17 Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosay (4/5 stars)

I really enjoyed the way two stories intersected in this popular novel. The author had a fun way of putting together two separate stories in a mysterious way. I loved that it centered on a portion of the Holocaust that few know about. I do wish we had known more about how others viewed the central character. It was a little predictable at times.  Interested in seeing how the movie is done.

#18 The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman (4/5 stars)

What an interesting book, I read for work book club! The tales were interwoven expertly of 20 different people working in the same newspaper and the intricacies of their lives that no one at the paper knew. It makes you really think about the international work environment we all live in! The book also flashed back in time to reveal the history of the paper. However, it was one of those books where nothing really ever happened, the plot had no climax.

FEATURE: July's Pup Budget

Month of July:

Evo Dog Food - $59.99 from ProperPet.com

Kong Tennis Balls - $2.00 from BarkingDeals.com

2 one-hour sessions with RuffCity Dogwalking - $50.00

Total - $111.99

Yearly costs:

We had paid for a 12 month supply of FrontLine and HeartGuard as well as shampoo.

Gifts:

Friend watched Havi for the day while we visited Law Student's brother in upstate NY

Dental Student's parents picked us up to spend the day in NJ because there is no transport with such a large dog on NJTransit

June: $149.31

July: $111.99

YTD: $261.30

http://www.properpet.com/brands/evo/

friday night fixing

Sometimes there is not better way to spend a Friday night than;

With a good glass of wine,

Your pup,

And fixing up the house!

Dental Student and I have been very careful with the items we choose to decorate our apartment.  Because we're on a VERY tight budget and a VERY small space, we choose each item with care. 

Last year, Dental Student went on a 10-day trip to Israel called Birthright (any Jewish American citizen aged 18-26 may go to Israel for 10 days for FREE, yes, really).  While there, he met a person in his tour group who is a photographer!  When they came back from Israel we picked out four prints that he took while in Israel and saved them, with his permission.  Then, we bought a deal off of Tipper.com for Canvas People.  There, they took our prints and made them into four 18X24 canvas prints.  They took two weeks to get to our home (we were able to track them the whole time) and when they got here we squealed!  A place we love, photos by a friend, and a great price!  They look GREAT over our dining room table...  

What do you think, Havi?

Any new projects in your home?!