Alphablog - K

K is for Kitten.

A few weeks ago, a coworker of mine found a kitten under her hood at work one day and she couldn't keep it. Even though I'm allergic, I really couldn't stand to have it just be abandoned in a parking lot, so I took it home until I could find a better home for it. Emmy was not impressed.

 
I held onto her for a couple of days, posted photos on Facebook, and exhausted all of my friends and family but unfortunately nobody wanted her. She was really small and super pretty after I cleaned her up a bit.

I had her for two days and she was affectionate, friendly, and playful. The kitten and Emmy weren't best friends or anything, but they got along fine with each other, so I thought kitty would be fine in a home with a dog.

She didn't have any accidents in the house but I don't have a litterbox to know if she is trained - I had just been taking her into the rocks outside and waiting until she went to the bathroom. I don't have any cat stuff at all as I never intended to have one - I just bought a couple cans of food to get by for a few days. As sweet as she was, I really couldn't keep her any longer - she was getting too comfortable with us and I was very uncomfortable with my allergies, but I really didn't want to drop her off at a shelter if I could avoid it!

On the third day, I had an idea - I remembered that one of the local radio DJs here sometimes talks about how he and his wife rescue animals, so I decided to ask him on Twitter if he had any ideas for me - he asked to see a photo and when he saw how cute she was, he said he wanted her! He asked if I could meet him at his gym with the kitten so I did, and he said even if he couldn't end up keeping her, he would be happy to find her a home. So cool! We even took a photo and he out it on his Twitter.

The next day, he told the whole story on the radio and said he was going to name the kitten after me, so he kept saying things like, "Whitney is the prettiest thing I've ever seen", and my friends were messaging me saying how weird/funny it was! It was a pretty cool experience and just goes to show you than no harm can come from asking, even if you think it's farfetched!

The best part of this whole thing, though, had to be when we came home sans kitten. Emmy had been on high alert for 3 days and once she realized the kitten was gone, she finally allowed herself to really sleep, and she was paaaaassed out.

Can't beat that cuteness! The kitten was pretty cute, but she's no Emmy.

Alphablog - J

J is for Jack Dawson.

Titanic is in my Top 5 favorite movies, which people somehow thing is comical, but I never understand why. I guess everyone forgets that the movie won ELEVEN Academy Awards. Eleven!! Writing an entire post about all the things I love about the movie, however, would take far too long. Somewhere a little over three hours. *wink*

So let's just stick to good old JD, shall we?

First, Jack and Fabrizio win their tickets to board the ship in a hand of poker that Jack dominates. Good job, Jack.

“We are the luckiest sons of bitches in the world, you know that?”

Soon after boarding, he sees the beautiful Rose and is so enamored by her that even when his friend waves his hand in front of Jack's face, his gaze is not broken.

Soon thereafter, he happens to see that lovely girl have a meltdown on the back of the ship, and he saves her life. If she jumps into the ocean, then he will jump into the ocean. Because he is Jack-goddamn-Dawson and he will save the life of someone he just met just because he is a nice guy. Since he saves her life, he gets to join her and her family and their friends for a First Class dinner, and he shines up "like a new penny", as Molly Brown so lovingly puts it.

Even though Rose's mother is a total bitch, Jack still manages to woo the shit out of everyone else at dinner with the wise words that only a vagabond could utter sincerely.

And oh yeah, he looks damn adorable while breaking barriers.

 After dinner, Jack tells Rose to meet him, because he wants to take her to a real party - and take her to a real party, he does.

Despite the amazing time he shows her, Rose gets scared and tries to run away from him even though he is clearly the love of her life, but Jack doesn't give up on her.


“I’m not an idiot. I know how the world works. I’ve got ten bucks in my pocket, I have nothing to offer you and I know that. I understand. But I’m too involved now. You jump, I jump, remember?” 

She realizes the error of her ways (obviously. Because Jack is beautiful.) and goes back to him. They share an iconic sunset kiss and then go to Rose's parlor, which she assures him is "quite proper" - and then, suddenly, it is not proper at all because he is drawing her nude! No worries though, Jack is a classy fellow and remains very respectful.

Oh yeah, have we not mentioned yet that Jack is a fabulous artist? Let's mention that. JACK IS A FABULOUS ARTIST. Ten more points for you, Jack Dawson.

After the ship starts sinking and Jack is locked up for a crime he did not commit, he still manages to be funny and charming.

And then there's that little, hotly debated scene where Jack lets Rose stay on the door floating in the middle of the freezing ocean after the ship sinks, but he's willing to make that sacrifice because he just loves her that much and wants her to live a full and happy life.


“Listen, Rose. You’re gonna get out of here, you’re gonna go on and you’re gonna make lots of babies, and you’re gonna watch them grow. You’re gonna die an old… old lady warm in her bed. Not here. Not this night. Not like this, do you understand me?”

And she does. And after all of those years, after a long, full, presumably happy life, Rose finally gets back to her one, her Jack.

Close, Rose, but not quite. He exists in your memory, and my heart. MY HEART, ROSE.

Alphablog - I

I is for Indians (of the Cleveland variety).

I became a fan of the Cleveland Indians by association. My grandfather was from Ohio originally, but moved to Arizona to help manage his emphysema. Despite the move, Grandpa John was a huge fan of them up until the day he died. To this day when I picture him, I imagine him wearing his original Indians windbreaker - he wore that thing year-round over his blue and grey henley t-shirts.

I always kind of semi-rooted for the Indians because of him, and then when Clinton and I actually went to Cleveland a few years ago to see a game, we had an experience that made me a life-long Indians fan.

Before we left, I asked my step-mom if I could borrow Grandpa John's jacket so he could "come with us" to the game. I kept the jacket on my person at all times - I did not dare pack it in a checked bag, but made sure to have it in my carry-on. When we got to the stadium, we walked around to check things out like we usually do, and they had a statue and a big mural for Bob Feller, a hometown hero (Check out this link for a good article on Bob Feller). It was a cloudy day, and as I walked around the statue a bit of sun burst through the clouds down to an old man sitting on the ground near the mural. I don't know if he was homeless or if he was maybe just waiting for the game, and I don't know how to explain this, but I just knew it was Grandpa John letting me know that he was there.

Eventually we made our way into the game - I laid the jacket down over the seat and bought Grandpa his own Pepsi to set down next to it.

I just know he was there, I could feel him watching the game with us. It was awesome. Sadly, the game ended up getting rained out! There was a rain delay at first, and it seemed like they would continue to play, and I still felt Grandpa John lingering - but once they officially called it, I immediately felt a change and knew he had gone back up. "Thanks for the Pepsi honey, I'm out of here!"

Ever since then, I've just known that they are my team and always will be. When we went home I told my step-mom all about our experience and about a year later she ended up giving me that jacket. It hangs in my closet now and only comes out when I go to games, on the anniversary of his passing, and if we're watching a game on TV I'll throw it over a chair so he can come watch with us if he wants to - but he's got a pretty good view anyway - better than the one from my living room, I'm sure.

Clinton and I at a spring training game here in AZ a couple years ago - and check out that beard!

My custom jersey.

Every year on December 23rd I take the jacket out and put it on for a few minutes and talk to my Grandpa John. It's been several years since he left us, but every time I put it on I can smell him and see him lounging outside in the sun, or standing with his sweatpant-clad tush next to the open oven - my eternally cold, pepsi-drinking, JAG-watching, don't-try-to-fool-him-because-he-can-see-right-through-you-and-will-love-you-regardless grandad.

Alphablog – H

H is for Halloween.

The original plan for Halloween this year was for Clinton and I to go over to my sister Beth’s house to hang out with her, her husband and kids, and whatever other family decided to come over. I was pretty excited to see all the kids’ costumes, walk door-to-door with them, and hand out some candy of our own. They talked about everyone dressing up as clowns, so Clinton and I considered dressing up as well.

Unfortunately, I was basically forced to cancel my plans when I was told I would have to change my shift that day to cover for someone else. I wasn’t a happy camper, but what can you really do, right? I told Clinton he should still go, and send me photos of everyone so I could live vicariously through him.

Beth hung back at home to hand out candy while her husband Garrett and Clinton, plus my other sister Jacque and her guy Nate walked around with the kids. One of my nieces was a super scary clown! The picture freaked me out for sure! The party consisted of a tiny cowboy (with fringe on his chaps!), a punk rock princess, a geisha (Maybe? I am just guessing), a racecar driver, 3 clowns, Jason, and a St. Pauli girl.

 

 

Even Emmy got into the holiday spirit.

 

I really wish I had been there to witness this next bit – Clinton told me that Emmy was walking around with the group to the different houses and at one point, one of my nieces was carrying her – when she put her down, Emmy just sauntered right on into someone’s house when they opened the door! He said that you could hear people laughing inside, and the girl had to step away for a moment to go grab her. It’s obviously the sort of thing that you apologize for, but still really funny!

I got off work at 8p so I was able to stop by for the last little part of the night and see everyone’s costumes in person, but it was a school night so things had pretty much already wound down and we didn’t stay for long. I’m glad I got to see everyone, even if it wasn’t for the whole night.

As for me, I haven’t dressed up for Halloween in probably 10 years, but that will probably change when we have kids of our own. For now, I’ll just look back on the costumes I wore as a kid, like the year my brother and I were Aladdin and Jasmine, or the year I was a hula dancer, he was a (miserable) Dalmatian, and my step-dad was a bum with a cardboard sign that said “Will work for candy.” I’d show you some pictures if I had any, but all I’ve got handy is this one of my brother and I as kids with some Halloween treat bags my dad’s friend put together for us.

 

What do you like to do for Halloween? Do you dress up every year in different costumes? Go to haunted houses or fear farms? Hand out candy? Buy a whole bunch of candy on clearance November 1^st?

Alphablog - G

G is for Gertrude's.

Clinton's mom had her birthday last month and we decided to take her to the Desert Botanical Garden for dinner at Gertrude's, and then walk the trails.

We picked Debbie up and headed over to make our 5pm dinner reservation, not taking into account the traffic in that part of town - oops! It was okay though, when we got there it turned out we really didn't even need a reservation as there was only one other table filled. Not that surprising, I guess, considering it was a week night. We ordered drinks and an appetizer (Poblano & Garbanzo Hummus | House Pickle Vegetable + Cotija + Crackers + Olive Oil + Herbs) and while we were waiting for that, I walked over to the main entrance of the Garden to get our tickets for after dinner so we could just go straight into the exhibits.

While heading over there I noticed that the tables all had different little centerpieces of succulents in all kinds of different (and what looked to be hand-spun) pottery - little pots, mugs, shallow bowls, etc. They also had tealight candles in little wooden holders. I wish I had though to take a photo or two but I didn't.

Unfortunately, I was also unable to take any photos of our food because we chose to eat outside and it got dark pretty quickly. There was a candle in the middle of the table, but it only provided a very small bit of light - which actually leads me into a funny thing that happened.

We ordered our food and by the time it came out, it was completely dark outside so while we could see what we were eating, we couldn't really see it in detail.

Debbie ordered:
Beets
Garden Beets + Seasonal Lettuces + Crow’s Dairy Chevre + Maple-Sherry Vinaigrette + Hazelnuts
3 Napkin Smoked Sow
Smoked Pork + Az. Cheese Co. Jack + Cilantro + Pickled Apple + Pickled Onion + Red Chile Jus + Ciabatta

I ordered:
Natural Chicken
Natural Breast + Brussel Sprouts + Potato Puree + Natural Jus

Clinton ordered:
Red Chile Short Rib
Crow’s Dairy Goat Sour Cream + Fingerlings + Mango + Pickled Red Onion

Everything is fresh, organic, and local if possible, and it was all really good. The funny thing that happened was that while we were all asking if the others wanted to taste, Clinton told his mom he was going to give her a bite of potato, and said that it tasted kind of weird. I looked at his plate and realized that the fingerling potatoes were dark, and what he thought was potato was actually slices of mango! HA! We all got a pretty good laugh out of that because, yeah, that would be a pretty weird tasting "potato"!

Debbie loved her beet salad, and I loved everything on my plate - I usually go for something a bit more adventurous, but that plate of comfort food just sounded really good to me, and it did not disappoint. Clinton enjoyed his as well, but was disappointed when he realized that it had goat sour cream - he hadn't noticed that on the menu, and he hates goat's milk. It wasn't too bad, though, he just scraped it off.

We declined dessert since we intended to get gelato later that evening on the way home, and then we headed over to walk the Garden. When we got there, however, we were dismayed to find that there was next to no lighting! We were pretty surprised by this since they are open until 9pm, we just assumed that the trails would be lit. It also seemed strange to me that the girl wouldn't have mentioned that when I bought my tickets at dusk and mentioned we'd be going straight in after dinner. Oh well. We were able to get a refund when we decided it was too dark and dangerous to attempt the trails, so we just looked around the gift shop and then went to get gelato instead.

We will definitely be going back to the DBG this month, though, because there is a new Chihuly exhibit being installed. We all saw it when he was there back in 2009 and are excited to see what new pieces will be shown. I'll be sure to update with pictures after that trip!

Alphablog - F

F is for Fall.

It's Autumn now, and I love it. The best thing about living in Arizona is that this season lasts longer here than anywhere else. That means more sweater weather, more hikes to see the changing leaves, more time to be able to spend outdoors and comfortably enjoy the weather than, say, somewhere where it starts snowing on November 1st.

Fall is the beginning of the Holiday Season, which is always a fun way to round out the year. Fall now includes my wedding anniversary - as if I needed any more reasons for this season to be my favorite.

As soon as October hit, I moved my blue table settings and added a new centerpiece and grabbed an orange and green bouquet from the store.

Time to see cute kids in Halloween costumes, get stocked up and menu planned for Thanksgiving, start buying Christmas presents, and get ready for the rest of the year to flash by in a blur!

ps - I hate pumpkin spice anything, and I think I might be the only person in the world! No worries - peppermint season is near, and that's my favorite time of year!

Alphablog - E

E is for Emmy.

Aka: Em, Emmster, puppy, little tiny stinky, etc. (And yes, she answers to all of those.)

Emmy is our puppy who is a dog and not a puppy, but who I will call puppy for the rest of her life. She has a total puppy face and I don't see it changing anytime soon!

Clinton and I adopted her 3 years ago, in October 2010 from MCACC. It's true when they say that you don't choose the dog, the dog chooses you. I wanted a medium-sized dog, and I have never ever liked itty bitty dogs, but Emmy is 10 lbs soaking wet. We went and looked around and thought she was super cute, and we played with her a little bit in the bonding room. Clinton was in love, but I wasn't actually totally sold because I wanted something bigger, so we decided to sleep on it. When we went back the next day, there was another family at her kennel trying to get her attention, but she was hiding at the back and wouldn't acknowledge them. As soon as they left and we walked up, she came up to the front and stood up and whined, licking our hands through the gate - and that was it for us. She picked us!

Our vet thinks she is a Chiweenie, which is a chihuahua dachshund mix. She has skinny, long legs and big eyes like a chihuahua, but she definitely has the doxie coloring floppy ears, and we love her endlessly. She was guessed to be 1 when we got her, and we just celebrated her 4th "birthday".

Emmy is a complete and total lovebug. All she ever wants to do is cuddle, seriously. When she's not cuddling, she plays with toys (plushies only, she'll refuse anything else), likes going for walks or to the dog park, finding a sliver of sun to lay in, or trying to sneak into the kitchen or our bed even though she's not allowed either of those places. We love to hike and despite her tiny stature, she rocks it out with us no matter how far we go - and then spends the entirety of the next day sleeping. We don't have kids, so she's pretty spoiled, but she's a good dog.

We love her. <3