Grammys in Your Jammies 2010

Here we are, in the fabulous year of 2010... I'm at Mike's watching again this year. We took Shadow out to the lake to swim and run around. He also go to meet Molly and Ruby, Tim and Nicki's dogs. He did so well with them and we had a fantastic time on a beautiful day! On to the Grammy reviews:

Performance Reviews

Lady Gaga and Elton John: Ok, now, Lady Gaga is growing on me, but seriously, Elton? You've stooped to paying with Lady Gaga?! I suppose the performance was good, but I just couldn't get past the fact that Elton was singing with her! I like "Poker Face" but would have liked to hear one of her newer ones!

Green Day: love, love, love them. "21 Guns" is one of my favorite songs that they sing. I wish they wouldn't have had the Broadway singers with them. That first one had scary dead eyes. And honestly, I just wanted to hear Green Day... it's not that I have anything against Broadway, it's just I like my Green Day plain.

Beyonce: Good God, she sure can sing. "If I Were A Boy" is sort of an odd choice for a big show like this... that said, I really liked the Alanis cover! I don't, however, get the whole writhing around on stage. Seriously, just sing!

P!nk: I saw her with Justin Timberlake one year... this girl can sing, but covers it up with a lot of production. I wasn't really digging the whole white robe thing, but she can still definitely sing. I'm not sure what the song was... I haven't heard it before. Ok, now she just took the robe off and looks almost naked. Yikes. That takes guts. And now she's a sprinkler? I don't get it. I'd put my money on lipsynching. I don't think you can sing upside down for 5 minutes straight.

Black Eyed Peas: SO excited to see them in April! "Imma Be" has me hooked right now! I also like "Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night". Overall, a pretty good performance!

Lady Antebellum: I LOVE the song "Need You Now". I would love to see them live in concert!

Jamie Foxx, T-Pain and Slash: "Alcohol" I don't want to like it, but I do. Why do you have to make fun of opera, Jamie? Nice touch to have Slash come out... it's the only thing that saved the song for Mike.

Zac Brown Band: You can't go wrong with good harmonies! "America The Beautiful" was, well, beautiful. Then they followed up with "Chicken Fried" and some AMAZING guitar picking!

Taylor Swift and Stevie Nicks: I've seen her live, and to be honest, this wasn't one of her better performances. Maybe just an off night?I liked the duet with Stevie Nicks a little better, but I still think she was just off a little bit tonight.

Michael Jackson, Celine Dion, Usher, Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Hudson and Smokey Robinson: First of all, 3D sucks when you don't have 3D glasses. I like the concept, but apparently Mike and I missed the memo. I do love "Earth Song" and I really did like the big names coming together to sing it. The movie in the background just about killed Mike (who, by the way, hates both Celine Dion and Michael Jackson, so this little song was a real treat for him). Super sad to see the kids on stage afterwards.

Bon Jovi: LOVE LOVE LOVE them! I can't believe they've never played the Grammys before! So good to see them on stage! I love "Who Says You Can't Go Home" and it was awesome that they brought Jennifer Nettles out for it! "Livin' on a Prayer" is a classic... of course the fans picked it!

Mary J. Blige and Andrea Bocelli: I love "BridgeOover Troubled Waters" and it sounds beautiful in Italian... you can't go wrong with Andrea Bocelli! Mary J. Blige was meant to sing these kind of tribute songs... she has so much passion. What a great tribute to Haiti!

Dave Matthews Band: I really want to see them the next time they come back to town... they went through a weird period and are back to being the DMB I fell in love with in high school! "You and Me" is a great song!

Maxwell and Roberta Flack: Meh...

Jeff Beck (Les Paul Tribute): Nothing like a little guitar on a Sunday night!

Drake, Eminem and Travis Barker: Weird little combo, but I think it worked on this one! Too bad half of it was silent because it had to be censored!

Clothing Reviews

Jennifer Lopez: horrible white and silver dress. So not flattering.

Kristen Bell: I kinda liked her black and gold dress. It had a slightly weird cut at the top, but it was sorta cool.

Taylor Swift: I LOVE her blue dress. I must have one. That's my color!

Miranda Lambert: I like the color of her dress, but I think the dress itself wasn't totally flattering.

Miley Cyrus: Is she wearing shoulder pads?

Robert Downey Jr: Horrible suit. No reason to have weird strips.

Beyonce: The metal dress isn't fantastic.

Who Got Screwed

Taylor Swift and Beyonce: Seriously? Kings of Leon won Record of the Year? Should have been Beyonce or Taylor Swift.

Best line of the night goes to Stephen Colbert: "This was a Christmas album, so obviously, I should thank Jesus Christ."

Also, what the heck is up with Kanye West? He steals other people's awards, complains when he doesn't win, yet he finally gets one and isn't there to accept it? Weak.

Motorcycle vs. Dog

This morning I got up early to get a little run in before work. I was almost finished with my first loop and turning down the main street in my neighborhood when I saw a bunch of people standing around and cars pulled over. I slowed down to see what happened and saw a man lying in the middle of the road with a motorcycle laying nearby. I stopped, introduced myself and asked if I could help (obviously, the answer was yes). I started talking to the patient and noticed two little black legs on the other side of the motorcycle... two little legs that looked a lot like Shadow's. I couldn't help but glance over every now and then and wonder. I knew he was crated, I knew he was in the house, but by God, it looked like my dog.

I continued to work on the patient who said that he never even saw the dog... it was all black and was still darkish out. He felt so bad... he said he's never hit anything before and that he's never fallen off his bike. He had some pain in the rib area and on his shoulder, but was otherwise stable and coherent. I kept him down and continued talking to him (and monitoring him) until the firefighters got there.

Some fantastic neighbors had stopped to help, including one that was standing near the dog. It was clearly dead (insides don't belong on the outside) and as I walked around the bike, I just got this terrible feeling in my stomach. Seriously, I know my dog and his body. This looked like him. Honestly, it could have been his twin. It had the same fur, same build, even the same head (lab shaped, but a little smaller). I lifted his front paws up so that I could see his chest (Shadow has a little white spot on his), but couldn't really tell. I then thought to look at his paws - most vets take off a dog's dew claws (they're where the dogs thumbs would be), but Shadow still has his. This dog did not. The neighbor that was standing nearby said he thought the dog belonged to the people just down the street and that their fence had blown over in the storm. It wasn't wearing tags otherwise I would have walked over to the people's house.

Needless to say, I don't think I've ever run faster to get home. And I hugged my dog like he's never been hugged before. I can't imagine how those people must be feeling (or if they even know... and honestly, I don't know which is worse). I'm glad I could be there to help the patient, but I wish there was something more we could have done for the dog.

iPhone Wonders and a Movie Review

Two things for today:

First, a fantastic story out of the Haiti earthquake. As you know, I got an iPhone for Christmas and have done nothing but sing it's praises since then... I can't believe everything this phone does! Ok, so picture this... you're a husband and father of two, working as an aid worker in Haiti. A massive earthquake hits and you are trapped in your collapsed hotel, bleeding from your head and leg. You can't remember what to do, but then you remember "There's an app for that". The man used his iPhone to figure out how to treat his wounds, look up what to do for shock and then as an alarm to keep him awake. How freaking crazy is that?! Technology rocks!

Here's the story in full at CNN.com: There's an app for that

Secondly, a movie review. This weekend I went with my parents to see "Crazy Heart", starring Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Jeff Bridges plays Bad Blake, a middle aged country singer with a major drinking problem and a string of bad marriages. Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Jean, a journalist and mother of a young son who wants to write an article about Bad. Obviously, a love story follows, but a very sad one. Yes, I was a little grossed out by him being so much older than her, but all in all, it was an excellent movie. Jeff Bridges does all of his own singing (as does Colin Farrell, who plays Tommy Sweet, a young country singer who performs the songs Bad writes). Bridges has an excellent voice, especially for country!

Sunshine, I Miss You

I have never been one of those people that complains much about the weather because, typically, when it's winter, I'm digging the rain and when it's summer, I'm all about the lake. Today is one of those exceptions. It has been doing nothing but raining for the last week. Yes, just about seven straight days. At first, I was super excited... I mean, we've had some serious rain storms. Mike put out a little jug on Sunday to make our own little rain gauge... as of last night, we had about four to five inches of water in it. I woke up today to snow. Yeah, honest to God snow. Even the news didn't see this one coming (and come on, they're always correct with the weather, right?). I fell asleep listening to the lovely pitter patter of rain and woke to a frosty blanket. Normally, this would not bother me (I'm like a two year old kid with snow...), but I had a meeting to get to this morning, so it would have been a bad day to get stranded. Fortunately, someone out there thought ahead and the snow plow dude came by at like 5am.

Before I go any further, let me state for the record that the only shoes I had with me were boots with three inch heels.

Mike was sweet enough to realize that in three inch boots, there's no way I could wrangle my dog up an icy driveway, so he grabbed Shadow and held my hand all the way up. I made it all the way up to my car, where Mike let go of my hand.

I promptly wiped out.

Completely bit it.

Flat on my butt.

Well, my hip and elbow. Apparently, there's some built in mechanism in me that makes me twist mid-air to save my Coach purse from hitting the icy ground. It's all about priorities, people. If you remember back to my blogs from Europe and the "Great Fall in Greece", you'll remember that when I fall, I laugh my head off. So this morning, it's 6am, I'm lying in the mushy, icy wet, laughing my head off. Poor Mike laughed right along with me.

I think I'm gonna live (my left hip and elbow disagree), but it was definitely not my favorite start to a Friday. Thank God tomorrow is Saturday!!!

Sunshine, I really do miss you. I can't wait for summer!

Trial by Fencing

Well, that didn't work out how I had it planned out in my head... I had envisioned Shadow frolicking inside his new fenced in area, happy as can be. This morning, Mike and I put him outside and he proceeded to sit at the gate and bark like a crazy dog at the house. I peeked out the window and he was out... as in roaming freely. Those of you who know me and know my dog know that we don't do the roaming freely thing. As it turns out, there was a little gap under the gate. Shadow figured out that if he shoved his head under and grabbed it with his teeth, he could get out. Fail for Mike and I.

We then made a little trip to Lowe's to get some gate latches and another pole. We thought we had the gate fixed... until Shadow figured out that he could dig his way out. So we fixed that by putting some rocks along the base. Shadow then determined that he could get his paws around the rocks and pull them towards him. Fail again.

Our final effort (and by final I mean Mike was fixing it while I was inside telling the dog that I didn't care any more if he escaped and ran away to join the circus) was to bury the rocks and then roll a log in front of the gate. I suppose you could call it a victory for us... if by victory you meant that the dog couldn't get out, but he could now stand at the gate and bark at the house for two hours. Apparently he just REALLY wants to be with his people!

That said, all of that mental stimulation worked... he's passed out on the floor next to me right now!

Tonight we went out with Mike's family (~25 people!) to celebrate Nancy and Ray's 40th wedding anniversary... seriously, 40 years! That's so amazing to me! It was a blast... we did appies at Charlie and Sheri's house, followed by dinner at the Union Inn and then dessert at Mike's grandmas house. It was a fantastic evening!

We Have A Fence!

Today we finished the fence... I'm beyond excited! I've been waiting forever to have a nice big place for Shadow to run around. Charlie (Mike's brother) and his daughter Katie came over to help get the last of the posts pounded in, the fence rolled out and then clipped onto the posts. It took about another 4 hours to finish up. The only thing we have left is to find a better way to keep the gate closed... I think we'll need one more metal pole and a latch.

Here's Shadow when I first put him in... taking a drink of water before running around:

He then proceeded to pee on just about anything he could claim in the name of Shadow:

He then needed to look for deer...

Here's a look down the fence line... we did a pretty darn good job!

Finally, here's a view from the deck... looking down at Shadow's land:

Like I said, I'm beyond excited... it is taking some getting used to for him. Those of you who know labs know that all they want is to be with their people, so in between doing laps to sniff and pee, he's sitting at the gate barking at the house. I'm sure that he'll get over that soon and be off to playing! One of the last things I want to do is to get a little dog house for him. Then he's all set!

No idea what to do:


Getting to know the area:


In other exciting news, Shadow and I went for a nice run this morning... a two mile run through the mountains... it was beautiful! The weather today was perfect - not too hot, not too cold!

Earthquake In Haiti

If you haven't heard, a massive 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti on Tuesday. For those of you who don't know, the big earthquake in San Francisco back in 1989 was a 6.1... and each 0.1 that you add increases the strength 10 fold. We saw what the 6.1 strength did to a built-up city like San Francisco. I can only imagine what kind of damage a much stronger earthquake could cause to a city like Haiti. Geophysicists are saying the quake packed the power of several nuclear bombs.

Here's what we know now:

• The Haitian president just announced that Haiti lacks the capacity to hospitalize earthquake victims and is asking for medical aid... meaning many of the injured people are not currently getting care.
• Entire neighborhoods are gone. Completely flattened. People are just wandering the streets because they're scared to go back into their homes due to the aftershocks.
• The national prison collapsed and surviving inmates have escaped.

It's so scary to me that we've seen so many earthquakes happening lately... first the Bay Area last week, then Eureka, now Haiti!

As always, there are heartbreaking stories of rescue, bravery and loss coming from the region. It always amazes me how wonderful and how terrible people can be after a disaster.

In case you're wanting to keep up, here's the link to CNN: Haiti Earthquake Coverage

Even More Fencing

Today was the epitome of a lazy Sunday. Mike and I got up this morning, had some egg and bacon biscuit sandwiches and white chocolate mochas. Then Mike went for a ride and I took Shadow for a nice long walk. Mike told me about a great little route we could take that was absolutely beautiful. The weather really cooperated... today felt like a spring day. It was brisk, but not cold and the sun was shining. Birds were singing. My dog had the time of his life.

After the walk, I made chocolate chip cookies and then watched some tv... basically had a pretty lazy couple of hours. After that, we decided to go pound some fence posts in. As I said in my last post, yesterday we got the corner and gate posts in... today was all about running the string and getting some of the side posts in. It was actually a lot easier than we thought (well, that's easy for me to say since I wasn't the one pounding them in, but even Mike said it wasn't that bad!). We got one of the long sides (100 feet) and one of the short sides (40 feet) done... I think we can get the rest pounded in and the fencing up next weekend! I honestly can't wait... it's going to be a great little spot for Shadow to run around!

Tonight we're going to grab some dinner and watch a movie... we rented two last night... the first was "Surveillance" with Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond. We were told by the girl at Blockbuster that this had a crazy twist and that it was super "graphic". Not so much. It was a decent movie, but we figured out the ending about half way through. Tonight, we're going to watch "Paranormal" which was our first choice. Hopefully that one's a little better!

It's been a fantastic weekend... I'm still defintiely fighting off this cold (thank God for DayQuil and NightQuil), but I don't feel like I did with the last sinus infection. I'm really hoping it stays that way! Right now, I'm looking forward to a nice relaxing evening!

Fencing

No, not the sport. Today we started work on the fence that we're building up at Mike's house. Specifically, "Shadow's fence". We're closing off an area to let him run free and frolic. I can't wait. Honestly, I'm so super excited about it. I can't wait to watch him run around and just be able to be free without crappy neighbor dogs barking their heads off at him!

Keep in mind, I've never built a fence in my life. I take that back, Dad and I did put up the little white picket fence for my vegetable garden, but that didn't involve cement and lots of pounding. That's right. Cement. Fortunately, Mike's buddy Mark came over and the two of them did most of the work. I tried to help but ended up being the water girl. Which is ok by me, I suppose. Today we got the four corner posts cemented in as well as the post for the gate. Tomorrow (and probably next weekend) we'll be pounding in the 40 t-posts that run along the sides. Then it's time to hang the actual fence and the gate. After that, Shadow is a free dog!

I'm still fighting off this cold... that said, it's amazing to only have a cold. I asked Mike yesterday - "Is this what it's like for normal people to get sick?". I'm stuffy and have a little cough, but really don't feel terrible. I've noticed the energy level is down, but I've been napping and trying to go to bed early. I just don't feel like I did last time I was sick (thank God because I don't know if I could handle being that sick again just yet!). Here's to hoping that I get better soon!

I Love All Things Google

I recently made the switch to Gmail because I was having a lot of issues with my Yahoo mail. It's a completely different interface and, let's be honest, a completely different mindset. After the first few days, I forgot that I ever used Yahoo... Google is just that fantastic. To make things even better, they integrate tons of cool features:

• Blogging: Way back when, I started using blogger as my blogging site. It was confusing, hard to update and geared more towards technical people who liked playing with HTML code. I made the switch a couple years ago to Vox and was pretty happy with it, but while I was gone, Google integrated with Blogger and has made things fantastic. I'm so happy to be back. They've even created this really cool feature called the blogger dashboard that lets me "bookmark" my friend's blogs so that I can see when they update. I love it. Love it, love it, love it.
• Calendaring: Those of you who know me well know that I am not an electronic calendar kind of girl. I have always kept a paper planner, in which I log daily activities, to do lists, important numbers, etc. Until now. With the addition of my fabulous new iPhone, I now have officially moved to the wonderful world of all things digital. And I'm not looking back. The iPhone has a great application that allows me to connect directly to my Google calendar. The Google calendar is easy to use and I can color code things to make life that much easier.
• Maps: Google maps are WAY better than the other services out there that give you directions. They're more accurate and, again, I can easily pull them up on my iPhone. Don't even get me going on how cool Google Earth is!

I know there are even more that I haven't even begun to explore, but I'm super satisfied with my switch to all things Google. Honestly, it's like I sat down and said "if I were going to use technology for everything I do, how would I do it" and then, poof, it happened. What a cool world we live in!

Welcome to 2010

Wow, I honestly can't believe it's 2010... I know I keep saying this, but I remember being little and thinking how far away and futuristic 2010 sounded. I thought for sure we're be flying around in Jetson's cars or time warping. So far, all we have is the iPhone (which, let's be honest, is just about as cool as time warping!). It seems so crazy to me!

New Years was a complete blast! Every year Mike hosts a huge pig roast, and this year was no exception! The pig weighed in at 116 pounds and we had a full keg of Guinness! Mike put the pig on the spit at about 10:30am... and by 7:30pm we had a fantastic meal (in fact, I'm pretty sure that we're going to be eating pig for the rest of 2010)! To the right, you can see Mr. Piggy doing his thing on the roaster. I know he looks scary, but he sure did taste good! We had a lot of Wii playing, some singing, far too much beer and more Irish Car Bombs than I need to see for the rest of my lifetime (yes, a very valuable lesson was learned). It was a fantastic New Years and once again, Mike's party was a hit! I can't wait to see how great the 2011 party is going to be!

My birthday was pretty fantastic too! As always, since it's so close to Christmas and New Years, it generally gets drawn out over several days (I'm totally not complaining!). The beginning was at the New Years Eve party... Nicki got me a delicious chocolate cake. Everyone at the party (seriously, like 50 people) sang to me... which in turn made me turn a lovely shade of red.

On my actual birthday (Saturday), I got to sleep in and spend the day totally relaxing with Mike. Those of you who know me know that I don't have those days very often, so it was definitely wonderful to have some down time! Then in the evening we met Mom, Dad, Oma, Kati and Nate at the Olive Garden for dinner. We had a fantastic dinner (with more singing... even though the waiter wanted to call me "Alma") and even more cake!

Today was another mellow day... I started to get a horrible headache last night, so this morning was like a migraine hangover... Mike and I watched some football and went to Lowe's to investigate the fence that we're going to build for Shadow (so he has lots of space to run!). Tonight I'm at home, relaxing and watching tv... not a bad way to end a three day weekend!