Scrougilicious

My upbeat holiday spirit continues! Just in time for the holidaze, I've been without a working fridge for a week now (supposedly 4 more retched days to go until sith lord Sears arrives with the 3rd replacement for a fridge we bought less than 6 months ago!). Gotta love a GE product. The cap on our fireplace atop the chimney blew off so that it rains into the fireplace (I thought the rain pitter patter sounded a little too close for comfort over the weekend). Our (home) phone has stopped working for the 4th time in 8 weeks - Comcast, you rock. At least I now have an excuse for not returning phone calls. And I finally bit the bullet to call a repairman for our stove ... it takes about 8 minutes for the (gas) oven to alight accompanied by a fairly loud explosion-like sound. I'm thinking not so good.

Thankfully I'm half way through a course of antibiotics for what felt like the bubonic plague (sinus infection that found its way to my chest - little devil). And walking dogs in the rain is a treat while you're hacking your lungs out and groping in your pocket for a morsel of soggy kleenex that a pup lunges for (successfully) thinking it's a treat. Heh, heh - just a snot rag Fido. Take that!

This Thursday I'm off with my family to see Kooza, the newest Cirque du Soleil in town. My kids have never been to a Cirque show - it's always exciting to introduce them to something new. Definitely one of the things I love about parenting. And of course the mandatory Nutcracker next weekend ... but only for my daughter and I. My son has threatened to disown me if I make him go. I'm kind of happy about that because you pretty much have to take out a second mortgage to buy Nutcracker tickets. I just read in the paper that the SF Ballet makes close to 1/2 of their annual budget from the Nutcracker alone. Hmmm. Isn't that show sort of a great thing for children to see? It would be nice if maybe other shows subsidized (at least a portion of) Nutcracker ticket prices - at least for children's tickets. Ooops - my holiday spirit showing through yet again? What can I say ... at least in this blog, I gotta callz em' as I seez em'. There are few places in life where I feel I can do that.

On one of SF's favorite topics - yes, weather - please note that my home town of Montreal, Quebec is buried under mounds and mounds and mounds of cold snow. Not the warm kind, the cold stuff. Poor bastards. My father in law just returned to Montreal from Toronto (visiting family if you must know). The ever bungling Air Canada lost his luggage on his way back Monday. The luggage did make it back to the airport in Montreal but they don't know when they're going to be able to get it to him because the delivery van can't navigate the streets there's so much snow nor can he drive out there. Ah yes, the good old days of 'la vieille province' (aka Quebec for you Americans). After 10 years of my living in San Francisco, my mother still regularly asks me when I'm moving back to Montreal. (Sigh).

To end on a canine note, I know you're all keen to check out another photo op of my pals McAllister and Bailey. I shall not disappoint thee. Here they are hot off the press:

Well, time to go guzzle some of my kids' expired cough syrup. Relax, it's only been expired a few months. I keep meaning to get to Walgreen's. It would be scary to know how much $$ the average Walgreen's customer spends there each year. My tab's gotta be in the 5 figures. At least it feels that way. Scrougilicious signing off from a sickly Dogilicious HQ.

Rain Rain Go Away

This might be my record for blogging silence. I gotta get me a ghost writer for my lazy blog weeks. Maybe it's the holidays approaching - it's sapping my energy just thinking of them. All that shopping, bad TV commercials, non-stop Xmas tunes on the radio (KOIT has been playing them for over a month now), and depressing looking Santas in every mall. I don't embody the holiday spirit, do I? Well, I suppose it's a good thing I celebrate Hanukkah. A little lighting of the menorah, some potato pancakes, a dreidl spin or two, a few jelly donuts and I'm done. And a few gifties for my kids ... but nothing that comes close to Xmas calibre. No 'Door Busters' for me.

I felt a strange combination of awe and horror at all the midnight and 4am Thanksgiving sales here. People standing in line for 10 hours before the store opening at 4am on Thanksgiving. What the _ _ _ _? It's not that I don't enjoy some good retail therapy every now and then. But the holidays seem to blow the 'everything in moderation' credo out the window. It feels garish to me. The excesses of the holidays just seem too, well... um, excessive to me. Call me scrougey. No doubt this will not be my last holiday posting. Aren't you glad? Stay tuned for more upbeat holiday whimsy.

Onwards to a cheerier topic - yep - you guessed it, the canine. My good friend with new puppy 'McAllister' has sent a few new choice photos that I must share. You may remember from an earlier posting (Nov 2nd) that he joins the elder Retriever 'Bailey' and will spend most of his lucky days in Stowe, VT. I'm not sure there's many things much cuter in life than a puppy. OK, babies run a close second. But only until they can speak. I'm told McAllister's favorite spot to snuggle up in is behind the couch as you can kind of see from the 2nd photo in his spread below. He's the tiny ball of fur behind the couch and Bailey is the large, sprawled out hound. I also like the shot of him safely tucked between the winter boots.

I didn't put these pix in chronological order ... the most recent one is the shot of a snowy McAllister.

It's now pouring in San Francisco and I've been diligently doing everything I can to put off walking my gang in the rain. Heck, I've even resorted to blogging this morning and you know how I like to have a cocktail in hand when I blog. The day before yesterday my timing was perfect ... I was able to wait out the rain. No such luck today. Ask any dog walker and you will find that a rainy day can almost bring us to tears. It entails lots of paw wiping, wet dog stank in the car and walking in pelting rain while still managing to throw the ball for my obsessive friends all the while making sure those pups who despise the rain aren't bolting back to the car mid-walk. I'll try to take solace in the fact that my one outdoor plant that's still alive, is getting a much needed soaking.

Well, I would like nothing better at this point than to keep on blogging for another hour but alas, my four legged friends await their Dogilicious savior. Please do a serious sundance! Cheerio.

Lotsa Yucks

Larry and I went to see Susie Essman at the Cobb Comedy Club this past week. She plays Susie (convenient), the wife of Larry David's rotund agent Jeff on HBO's 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'. Hilarious. Her routine is great and her ability to do really funny impromptu back and forth with the audience is impressive. This time I steered clear of the watery rum and cokes at the club and went for a Virgil's root beer - deliciouso. A welcome booze change. To me, there's nothing like a night of live comedy. Once again (a la Kevin Nealon night), my face and ribs hurt from laughing so hard. Good times. I have all the respect in the world for stand-up comedians - it seems so courageous to me.

Time for me to rest up - my mother-in-law arrives tomorrow afternoon. Arrivederci to my millions of readers. Back soon. Nighty night from Dogilicious HQ.

Back from So-Cal

It's taken me a week to get over our 4 day family getaway to San Diego. I would use the term 'vacation', but it wouldn't be accurate. Always fun to have a change of scenery for sure and we were fortunate to have the chance to stay at a friend's home on the island of Coronado ... beautiful place. There's a large military base there; I'm told it's where the Navy Seals train. Sure are a lot of hard bodies jogging along the beach in Navy emblazoned shorts ... nice. I'll leave it at that.

My favorite was the Wild Animal Park about a half hour or so outside the city. Picture African safari on a smaller scale. The animals actually roam free! Visitors tour the place in an open train-like vehicle. We also checked out LegoLand (oy), the San Diego Zoo and the SS Midway (aircraft carrier decommissioned after the Gulf War). Man, the aircraft carrier is a massive object - the length of 4 football fields we were told. At the zoo, my favorite spot was the nursery where we saw days old infant chimpanzees. They were swaddled in blankets, lying in cribs and blinking up at us (through the glass) with big saucer chimpanzeey eyes (they were premature). Adorable and creepy at the same time. Yep - no half assed tourists were we - we did it all. We weren't so lucky weather-wise but it could have been worse. The one afternoon it rained, we hit 'The Bee Movie' - brain child of Jerry Seinfeld. He should stick to stand-up or sitcoms - this movie sucked. Even my kids were getting antsy.

I can't not mention the oil spill. I could see the tanker from my neighbor's window (there' s a tree blocking the sight line from my place). Amazing how quickly that stuff does damage. Poor wildlife. Lots of finger pointing now. But I took a little heart from the recent article in the SF Chronicle showing the first batch of birds that had been rescued and cleaned off, being released into the wild. Apparently at one point, there were too many volunteers who turned up for training on how to clean beaches and birds. You gotta love that about this place - I do.

Still on the topic of birds, I hope everyone is getting geared up for Thanksgiving. I (along with my family and mother -in-law) will be dining at the home of a very dear friend who oddly enough loathes turkey. She's had numerous offers from excellent cooks to bring the bird, but to no avail. Under no circumstances is a bird of any kind to cross her doorstep for Thanksgiving. Sigh. I think we're going to have a beef tenderloin or lamb of some kind. Whatever it is, it'll be good. But it does feel weird to eat something other than turkey on Thanksgiving. I guess I'm a traditionalist. Perhaps she had a bad run-in with a renegade turkey up in Toronto from where she hails ...

A few days ago there was a list in the paper of 18 places around the city (restaurants, markets and food services) that offer ready-to-serve Thanksgiving feasts. Some of them are fairly delicious sounding. Like Bi-Rite offers the bird, creamy crab bisque, mashed potatoes, wild mushroom celery and bread stuffing, porcini mushroom and Marsala gravy, cranberry-orange relish and pumpkin and apple pie. (No, I'm not moon lighting for Bi-Rite). Imagine just opening a big box for Thanksgiving instead of cooking for a gazillion hours. Although I suppose that's half the fun, right? Or is it? What's the other half of the fun ... the dishes that you have to pile up in the next room because you can't get them all in the kitchen? Guess I'm not in the Thanksgiving spirit just yet.

I'll push off now - time to check on my daughter who at some point over the weekend developed the stomach flu ... poor wee thing. All fevered up and tossing her cookies. Well, no doubt your night will be better than mine. Nighty-night from the Dogilicious infirmary.

Fave' Mini-Dalmatian

I bumped into a couple at Stern Grove who I see now and then (Jake and Jeff). They have the most adorable tri-colored Miniature Dalmatian named 'Junior'. Being the professional dog walker that I am, I thought I was pretty much up on my dog breeds, but this was the first mini Dalmatian for me. I'm a BIG fan. He's not only physically adorable, but he has the sweetest temperament which isn't always the case for Dalmatians. This is a shot of him as a puppy. He has his own web page if you're so inclined.

Jeff told me that he reads my blog and was curious as to what my brother looks like, given that I posted a photo of my sister in a previous blog. So true. I don't want to be accused of any sibling preference so here's a pic of my brother (along with my mom and kids) from the summer. If my brother could send me one of the stellar photos of just him, I would be happy to post that as well. Note the Canadian pride as attested by my brother's lovely choice of t-shirts. Although it sort of looks like he might be wearing nothing from the waist down, I can assure you that he had one of his favorite tattered pairs of shorts on.

FYI, this weekend holds something a little different in store for me and my family. The usual Saturday soccer practice for Jake? Heck no. Ballet class or I should say 'Creative Movement' (we're in California after all) for Anna? Negativo. We are off to San Diego to conquer LegoLand, the Wild Animal Park and SeaWorld. Oh ya baby! And you thought you had a rockin' weekend planned. As I jotted down the addresses and phone numbers of the theme parks to take with us, I also noted the admission prices. Whoa nelly. A small case of highway robbery. If the four of us go to all 3 places (bearing in mind that 2 of our gang are kids under the age of 10), we're talking 500 clams. And that's before parking, food and the mandatory hellish visit to the gift shop. Hmmm. Good thing we stopped at 2 kids - they're expensive creatures.

I better get off my duff and walk some canines. Perhaps Junior is out there looking for me right now. For my Bay Area friends, dress warmly today - it's nippy out there. 54 degrees on my outdoor whatchamacallit. I don't want to know the temperature in the room as I type this. My fingernails have a bluish tint is all I'll say. Tune in for San Diego scoop next week. Until then, over and out from Dogilicious HQ.

Tuesday Night Ramble

It's Tuesday night - I feel like I've already lived a week's worth since Sunday morning which is when Larry (my husband) left for Toronto on business. I fear that I probably double-down on wrinkle development when Larry goes out of town. Single parenting is doable but it sure as heck ain't easy. Although neither of my kids has hit double digits in age yet (Jake is 8 and Anna is 6), added together they're 14. So I basically have a teenager in my midst. And a geriatric dog - Lois is 77 in human years. 77 years young of course.


Before I forget, Friday night we went to see Kevin Nealon (SNL hall of famer and now starring in 'Weeds'). My stomach ached the next day from laughing so hard - you know the kind of laughing that you almost choke from? You take a sip of your drink not realizing how gut wrenchingly funny the next line will be and out of nowhere there's rum and coke coming out your nose and running down your chin. He is absolutely hilarious - if you ever get a chance to see him, go. The comedian who came before Kevin was also great - a little Kramer-esque. Born and raised in the Bay Area. From my experience, the folks who are native Bay Area-ers are a tad eccentric. Too much sea air, healthy food and exercise. It's bound to drive one slightly mad.

Speaking of going slightly mad, I may get there if the writer's strike goes on for any significant length of time. I'm the first to admit that I'm a television junkie. Unless I go out, have people over, or am really into a stellar book, from 9pm on you'll find me glued to the screen like a zombie. I suppose I'm somewhat of a selective junkie though. Most of my shows are on HBO or ShowTime with a few exceptions. Curb Your Enthusiasm, Dexter, Weeds, Californication and The Office are my favorites. Grey's Anatomy has aggravated me for some time now but I get a kick out of McDreamy/McSteamy eye candy. I still watch all the old Seinfeld re-runs if I'm up at 11pm and can arm wrestle the remote away from Larry trying desperately to keep the channel on SportsDesk. Seinfeld might be the only television series DVD that I purchase one day - I just saw an ad for it. It's my kind of inane humor.

My brother told me today that he recently subscribed to my blog through Google Reader so that whenever I post something new, it gets 'pushed' to him. So he doesn't have to keep checking to see when I finally get my act together to post something new. I like that. Nice initiative.

Me thinks I must bid thee adieu til the morrow' - the screen in my drawing room calleth me yonder for tube time (I occasionally get a little Shakespearesque around this time of night). I will now go hither and drinketh a spot o' Brandy that Puck recommendeth to me last fortnight. Cheerio from Dogilicious.

Puppy Love

A friend of mine who lives in Stowe, Vermont most of the time just sent me photos of the new puppy they're getting, 'McAllister'. I had to share them (not sure which one he is out of the three). There's nothing like a puppy. He's a lucky one - destined to romp and roll in the snow in the winter, hike mountain trails and swim in the other seasons. In my next life, I want to be a dog in Stowe.

McAllister is coming into a home already claimed by 7 year old Golden Retriever 'Bailey'. Will Bailey welcome McAllister with open paws? Or will the new recruit have to earn Bailey's affection? Look for answers to this and other titillating questions in a future blog. Here's a shot of unsuspecting Bailey - he has no idea how his life is about to change.

Tonight I'm off to see Kevin Nealon at a comedy club - you know, Saturday Night Live veteran and currently starring in Weeds? I can't wait to laugh my ass off. By Friday night I'm in serious need of a laugh. We're going with good friends of ours who also happen to be our neighbors. Good times. Gotta run - my Montreal bagel is ready for its cream cheese. I love that my parents carry bags of bagels across the country when they visit. If you live in the Bay Area, enjoy the beautiful sunshine today. And if you're my brother and sister living in Brooklyn - time to call the moving truck! Hope everyone's Friday is Dogilicious.