Celebrities, Chips, Cougars & Complimentary Coke

Last night, Corey and I met up with the Reeders for dinner and a trip to the new Snoqualmie Casino. The casino just opened a few weeks ago and you could tell - it was packed. It's really cool inside - it has really high ceilings with lodge-like beams, several restaurants, a poker room and a dance club. While there were some five cent and penny slots, the minimum bets were set pretty high and the tables had high minimums.


Lisa & I trying our hand at the slots.


Lisa, just before winning some extra cash on a bonus round of Wild Dolphins.

While Corey and Jason were playing Blackjack at the tables, Lisa and I decided to check out Club Sno, the dance club, where we found all kinds of interesting characters (who very likely were on some sort of drug). See the photos below.


Lisa and I scoping out the club.

Great shot of one of the cougars dancing it up (to the left of Lisa).

The cougar's dance partner had some special moves - he's directly to the left of Lisa. As we left the club, he even tried to get Lisa to dance with him. For some reason, she declined.

Overall, we had a fun night. We saw Julian Peterson (Seahawks linebacker) who was hanging out with his wife at the Blackjack tables (we would have tried to get a pic with him; however, there were too many video cameras and pit bosses around for us to attempt that), Jason saw Norm Charleton (ex-Mariner pitcher), Corey and Jason were able to play some Blackjack and smoke cigars, Lisa and I were able to dance it up a bit with the druggies and score complimentary Diet Cokes (while Jason had to pay $3.50 for a bottle of beer even though he was gambling) and Lisa came out the best, having won $50+ on the slots. We're all looking forward to our March Vegas trip!

Date Night with the Soon-to-Be McNeills

Last night, Corey and I met up with Brian and Katrina (who were in town for Thanksgiving) for a yummy dinner at Via Tribulani (the restaurant Corey and I had our first date). It was great to see them and catch up.

After dinner, they stopped by our place so they could meet Roxy. Of course, she loved having new visitors and people to give her attention. Check out the cute pic of the three of them below.



Then Brian, Corey and I went to see the new James Bond movie (Katrina is trying to kick a cold and went back to the hotel to get some much needed rest). The movie was pretty good - lots of action, as you'd expect from a James Bond movie. And some cool cars - if anyone needs a gift idea for me, feel free to splurge on a new Aston Martin.

Next time we'll see Brian and Katrina will likely be in April for their wedding in Maui - can't wait!

Terrific Turkey Day

Well, we did it! We survived our first Thanksgiving as a married couple, complete with a condo-full of nine people and 2 dogs. My family (my mom, dad, brother and grandma) and Corey's family (his mom and dad) and our family friend, Consuelo, all joined us at our place for a day of fun and food. Consuelo's dog, Brio, joined us as well. While he and Roxy didn't get along too well, it was fun to have both dogs here - both pups got lots of love and attention.

It was the first time either of us had cooked a turkey (and a large large turkey at that - 19.3 lbs!) and stuffing so we were a bit nervous but everything turned out really well. We did a salt roasted turkey with herbs (which turned out especially well - this recipe is highly recommended!) and homemade stuffing, along with a big pan of gravy. Corey also made a really good broccoli & pancetta side dish and I made a pumpkin pie. All of our guests provided the appetizers, wine, other side dishes, desserts, etc so that was a HUGE help (thanks again, all!).

Here are some pics from our fun day.


Basting the bird...


The big bird - ready to eat!


The spread - mmm!

The 'adult' table...

The 'kid' area...

The top (turkey) chefs for the day...

Brio made the rounds - I think he spent quality time on everyone's lap.

Roxy's Rough Day

Roxy's day started out just dandy, with her morning army crawl down the hall on our way outside. Here's a video so you can see the army crawl in action:



However, things went downhill from there. Corey worked from home today (he's got a really bad cold) and IM'd me halfway through the day to tell me that Roxy had projectile diarrhea (whew, for once I'm glad I'm not working from home).

She seemed to be fine after that incident and she rested all afternoon, so I took her to her final Basic Obedience class tonight as planned. While she does great playing with the other dogs there, she isn't so great when up in the front of the class trying to do the tricks (sit & stay, leave it, come and heel) she's learned because she is so easily distracted by all the other people and dogs in the room. And I know you can all vouch for me because you've seen the sit & stay video - she's good at it! She actually did the worst at that tonight - it took her about five tries to sit for longer than three seconds, even though at home, she can sit & stay for 15-20 seconds. Regardless, she got her jumbo graduation milkbone and back home we came.

Once I got her upstairs though, I realized she'd barfed all over in her crate and she was literally sitting in the middle of it (oh the joys of puppy parenthood). That lead to an impromptu bath (which you all know Roxy is not fond of).

Her day did take a turn for the better, though - once out of the bath, she finally got to enjoy her jumbo milkbone and now she's cuddled up in her doggy bed relaxing after her rough day. Poor Roxy - hopefully tomorrow will be a much better day (for all of us!).


Sittin' pretty after the bath.


Devouring the milkbone.

Relaxing after her rough day.

It's All About Roxy

So in looking at recent blog posts, I realized that I hadn't posted too much about our cute little pup lately. That said, this blog is dedicated entirely to Roxy!

She's just about six months old and the latest weigh-in says she's 16.2 lbs. She supposed to get to 24 lbs so we still have a little ways to go. She loves her little pink squeak toy the best - it's the first toy we ever gave her. We put it in her crate with her every night and it's often the first toy she runs back in for in the morning. She LOVES being outside walking around, but mostly loves sniffing and eating anything she can get her paws on outdoors. It usually takes us 10-15 minutes to go around the large block around our condo. She also loves cuddling and sleeping on our laps - I worked from home on Thursday of last week and I think she slept on my lap (while snoring of course) for at least 4 hours.

She's currently paper trained during the day but we're trying to get away from that and only have her going outside. We recently got her a bell to ring with her paw anytime she needs to go - she hasn't fully gotten the hang of it yet. She likes to ring it anytime she's bored and just wants to get outside. If she rings it, we take her out and give her a few minutes to do her 'business' - if she doesn't within that time frame, back in she goes. I think I took her out 10 times yesterday - only 4 of which resulted in any 'business'. Oh well, some day it'll work (I hope!). If nothing else - it's pretty cute when she rings the bell (loudly) and then sits and looks at us as if to say 'Okay, I'm ready to go outside to play now, folks!' If only we had a house with a backyard that we could just let her out to play in anytime she wants.

Here's a video doing one of her tricks --- 'Sit' and 'Stay' (even after we put a treat on the ground). Notice her stare the treat down right after I set it down.



And here are some cute pics of her that we've taken this past week.


Roxy and Corey watched the Seahawks game today.


First shot of Roxy in her Seahawks jersey (one of Corey's birthday presents from yours truly).


Just another view of her in the jersey. When we first put it on her over two months ago, she was so small, she was able to crawl out of the neck hole. Not anymore...


And a back view - so cute, I couldn't get enough pics of her in it. She didn't even mind it being on - it was on most of the day. We even took her out for walks in, which made everyone we passed smile and compliment her.


Playing with Pink Bear earlier this week. This bear used to be huge compared to Roxy but now she's about the same size.

Next up is Thanksgiving - we have nine people coming over. Roxy will be in heaven - so many people to play with and to give her attention! I'm sure we'll have lots of stories and photos to share after our turkey feast.

Meeting of the K-9's

We're having the whole gang (Corey's parents and brother, Consuelo, my parents and brother and my grandma) over for Thanksgiving and we've invited Brio (Consuelo's dog) over as well. In order to ensure Roxy and Brio play nice on Turkey Day, we thought we'd have them meet ahead of time. Today was the big day.

Roxy and Brio are almost the exact same height and length, which was really cute. Roxy probably would have pounced on Brio if we'd let her and I don't think Brio is completely sold on Roxy yet (I wouldn't be either if a stalky dog kept leaping at me while snorting and huffing & puffing). We took a walk with the both of them and they seemed to do okay walking / running around with either other. Hopefully they'll remember each other come Thanksgiving.

Here are a few pics from the meeting:


Umm, who are you?


Scoping out the same bush...


Good shot for you to see how similar in size they are...for now (Roxy is still supposed to gain 8 more pounds).

They met a another dog (a poodle mix) at the play fields nearby.

And you are?....

And on a side note, I thought I'd share Roxy's latest habit. Every morning, I take her out for a potty break as soon as I get up. She used to literally sprint outside to her bark patch but in the last week or so, she has taken to army crawling down the entire hallway, from our front door to the door of the stairs. While this may seem cute (and trust me, it is), it is pretty frustrating at 6 a.m. to have to wait for her to crawl down the entire hallway just to go outside to do her business, but at the same time, I can't help but smile. It's a good thing she's cute, right?!

Making her way from our door to the stairs this morning...

And here's a close-up...

Sunny Seattle Saturday

As most of you know, after it hits November here in Seattle, we don't see the sun much for about 9 months. We were pleasantly surprised today though, when we woke up to find the sun streaming in our windows. We were excited when the Allen's (Ben, Heidi & Luci) called and asked if we wanted to go on a walk. We knew we had to take advantage of the sun while we can!

The Allen's met at our place so they could meet Roxy. Roxy also got to meet Luci and was great with her - and Luci loved Roxy! She smiled at her almost the entire time. It was so fun to watch the two of them.

Here are a few pics of Roxy & Luci:

I have a feeling that Luci is going to be walking soon!

Luci & Roxy sizing each other up.

Luci is such a cute, happy baby!

Roxy loves sitting on the couch like a person. It seriously calms her down for some crazy reason.

After introducing Luci to Roxy, we took a walk and stopped at the The Scoop @ Walter's for some coffee and pastries to re-fuel for the walk home. At The Scoop, they were preparing for Thanksgiving and had supplies for kids to make construction paper turkies, which of course, us 20- and 30-somethings decided was right up our alley. We had a great time and I'm sure the folks at The Scoop thought we were drunk. Here's a peek at our creation:

Hey - you try making a paper turkey without glue!

Stay tuned - I think Brio (our friend Consuelo's dog) and Roxy will be meeting for the first time tomorrow and I'm sure we'll have some great pics and stories to share then.

Kels' Birthday Bash

Kels turned 26 this week so of course, we had to celebrate! On Thursday night, a bunch of us met up at The Traveler, which is a great Euro-style pub right along Leary in Ballard. It just opened earlier this year and the drinks and food are great! And don't forgot the yummy fries (regular AND sweet potato!) and dipping sauces.

Throughout the evening, tons of Kels' friends from high school, college, grad school and just from around Seattle dropped by to take part in the celebration. Corey wasn't able to make it (fire drill at work) but he was still able to get Kels a drink to celebrate (and I was her personal waitress - can't beat that!). We all had a great time and I think Kels did too - just a hunch though.

Here are some pics from our evening out (the rest on our my Flickr site):


Gina, Kels & I.


Gina, Me & Sara.


Cheers!


Cute couple alert! Mark & Kels pose on the big night out.

Girlie Gathering

Tonight, Brooke had a bunch of us Wunderman (current and past) gals over for some wine, gossiping and dinner. Brooke moved into her apartment a few months ago and just finished furnishing it so she was very excited to finally have everyone over for a house-warming and we were excited to check it out.

Her apartment is super cute - newly re-finished and decorated very well. She even has a nice, big table that fit all six of us gals for dinner.

It was great to catch up with everyone, hear what is going on at Wunderman from the girls who still work there and to hear about Brooke's new man.

All-in-all, it was a great night!


All the girls! Terri (who was trying to hide just as the photo was taken), Alison (preggo with twin girls!), Maggie, me, Brooke and Jennifer.



Brooke and her dog, Bodhi (a Boston Terrier). Bodhi was very well behaved the entire time we were there.

Crashin the Allens'

Ben and Heidi invited Corey and I over to hang out, see Luci and eat some delicious homemade pizza last night. We hadn't seen them in a few months and boy is Luci growing up quickly! She's even started taking swimming classes! She is so cute and such a great baby. She was happy the entire time we were there. When we have kids, we hope we're as lucky as Ben and Heidi are to have such a cute, healthy and happy baby.

We had a great time catching up with Ben and Heidi and we (Corey, Roxy and I) have plans to meet up with both of them, Luci and Annie soon for a walk around Ballard, which we're looking forward to. Up next though is the Allen's Election Party tomorrow night after Roxy's obedience class - should be a fun night!

Here are a few pics from last night:


The Allen family - Annie (their dog), Heidi, Luci & Ben.

Here's a close-up of Luci.