There was an alligator sighting in our backyard.  What to do?  Where's our alligator hunter when you need him? We have a little lemon tree in our backyard.  In fact, you can sort of see it in the background of this picture, by the little gnome.  It's been producing some tiny little lemons.  The tree is still immature so most of the little round lemons just end up falling off the tree before they ripen.  So what would make Toby abandon his favorite prey of late?  The little yellow lemons, of course!  Turns out that Toby is fascinated by the tiny lemons.  Why, you ask?  Who knows, but nothing surprises me about my dorky dog.  What does he do with the lemons, you ask?  Well, he likes to play with the lemon by poncing on it, roll it around in his mouth, spit it out and put it around with his nose.  Yes, it keeps him happy for about twenty minutes.  He's quite gentle with the lemon so one usually lasts a few days until he breaks the rind.

Finally, the alligator gets to rest in peace.  After Toby took him in his jaw and shook him like a rattle, this gator definitely desserves some chilling on the cool grass.

Toby's snooping around under the lemon tree for some fallen lemons.  You can see one at the bottom of the picture.

Toby brought his lemon into the house.  He loves the little thing.  Usually he destroys his toys fairly quickly, but he's very gentle with the little lemon, pushing it around with his nose.  My dog is so strange...

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Why can't I be a lap dog??  Some days Toby just feels like being a lap dog.  I guess we never told him that he weighs 85lbs and can't curl up on our laps.  But it doesn't mean he won't try.  I love lazy Sundays.  It is the one day of the week we have no agendas except to relax and spend some quiet time at home with Toby.  I think Toby loves the slower pace of life.

Ever seen the underside of a dog's snout?  It's quite adorable and fuzzy.  Nose drippings however, is a different story.

Can life get any better than this?  It's a beautiful day in LA, the skies are blue and there's a persistent wind.  But nothing beats chilling on my dad's legs and enjoying March Madness with SC against Michigan State, Trojans vs Spartans!  This year is the first year that SC is farther along in the NCAA championship than UCLA!  Regardless of the outcome, it's been a good run for the Trojans.

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California Golden Poppies are starting to bloom.  It's the perfect time to enjoy the natural wonders of Southern California, before it becomes too hot.  Therefore, we took advantage of our Friday off this week to go hiking.  But where to?  I initially wanted to drive out to the Antalope Valley to see the Golden Poppies.  However, they do not allow dogs!  Then I remember a group of graduate students in my department at UCLA who used to organize local hikes and their favorite place to go is the Santa Monica Mountains.  Though I never joined them on their hikes, I've always been curious about the Santa Monica Mountains.  They've always raved about the natural beauty and the fact that it's so close by.  I did some research and discovered some great tips on where to go from this avid hiker on the web.  So with backpack and dog in tote, and planty of water and sunscreen, we jumped into the car and drove to Calabasas to the Coyote Trail for our adventure.

Bright-eye and bushy tailed, we were getting ready for our hike at the visitor's center parking lot.

The road leading to "Western Town."  This part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Park is called Paramount Park and was quite popular with Hollywood.  They built a fake town where they filmed shows such as Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.  Coyote Trail starts at the end of "Western Town."

Toby and I in front of the US Marshal.  We looked too happy to be outlaws.  I love that big smile on Toby's face.  I guess he didn't know that he's actually going on the hike with us!

The deserted Western Town...it felt very real, until you go into the buildings.

The local bank.  And what's a western town without a saloon?

Once we had our fill of the town, off we go on our hike on the Coyote Trail.  Thankfully, the weather was not too hot.  It was in the mid seventies with a light haze.  But we were very careful with Toby.  He was wearing a fur coat afterall.  The key to hiking with dogs is to take thing easy, frequent stops and LOTS of water.

Here we are on one of our water breaks.  Toby was cooling down in the shade after drinking half of the water I brought along for him.  I enjoyed a juicy apple while we waited for Toby to get some rest.  The afternoon was starting to warm up a little.

Along Coyote Trail, there were plenty of shaded areas.  Thankfully, there was a gentle breeze to keep things cool.  We will definitely not be hiking here in August.

View of the beautiful valley from our trail.

I loved this great tree.  It's branches stretched out like the fingers of an old witch.  We were the only people and dog on the trail and this tree created an eerie yet beautiful backdrop against the pale mountains.

Amazing colors spotted the hills.  These little yellow flowers were trying to stand out against the bright orange poppies.  The poppies will eventually win out and overtake the hillsides.  But for now, these little guys have caught my attention.

A lone tree we passed on the hike.

Towards the end of the trail, we came upon this little stream.  It was wonderfully refreshing after the long hike.  Thankfully, Toby is not the kind of dog that would jump into the stream or drink from it.  He prefers to drink the water I bring him and prefered to stay on the dry bank with us.  But we did see a pair of ducks swimming about in the stream. Overall, we had a wonderful day and Toby was so exhausted from the adventure that he slept the entire car ride home!  We definitely recommend visiting the Santa Monica Mountains in the Spring, or perhaps late Fall.  But it would be way too hot for a hike in the middle of the LA Summer.

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It's only Tuesday...so that's why Toby's got the long face.  But thankfully, this is a short work week for me.  It's been a while since I posted a cute picture of Toby so I thought it was due.  I can't believe it's been almost seven years since I went to Riverside to pick him up.  He was only two months old.  He's been living with me for almost seven years.  If he was a kid, he'd be in second grade!  Since Toby's been with me, we moved 3 times.  Hopefully, we'll be in this house the rest of his life. I remember when I first had Toby, he was soooo adorable.  I used to carry him around all the time knowing that in a few months I wouldn't be able to.  I had wish that time would stand still.  Then he grew into a gawky, skinny teen and I wished that time would go faster so that he would grow into one of those beautiful Golden Retrievers I've seen in pictures.  We recently switched Toby onto "Senior" food, at the age of 6.5.  Now I wish time would go slow so we can have Toby for many, many more years.   If only we can control time, like we can control our DVRs.

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Since daylight savings time changed, I've been feeling a little calmer.  I feel very much like a plant, craving for more sunlight.  This is our new basil plant.  Basil is a much loved herb in our household.  We love the smell, the taste, and the texture of this little herb.  I came home from work one day and discovered a small bundle of basil plant sitting on our kitchen counter.  Mr. BAW had brought it home from our local market.  It was adorable, but needed a little care.  So I tore open the wrapping and split apart the tightly wound roots and put it into a little glass vase with some mulch and water.  Apparently, you have to constantly remove the adult leaves to encourage new leaf growth.  That suits us well since we use basil in our cooking often. On of our favorite dish in the world is Caprese.  There's nothing more refreshing than fresh basil, juicy tomatos, and sweet buffalo mozzarella!  So simple, so divine.

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I finally updated my main homepage here.  Just wanted to change it to reflect my new life with my new family.  I felt that it was time to finally grow up and my mood reflects that.  Hopefully, the new site is a little more sophisticated.  There's also room for growth.  For now, it's just a launching site to my other pages.  Toby and I already have our own websites, Mr. BAW's is yet to be developed.  I think I might revamp my other pages too.  But all that will take time and inspiration.  Making webpages is really one of my favorite hobbies.  It doesn't cost me any money, it allows me to express my creativity, and I find it relaxing.  In fact, I look forward to the rare times when I have some alone time to just hang out at the house and just play around with various designs.  I also enjoy browsing other people's sites for inspiration.  Have a happy web-browsing weekend!

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I love wall-mounted stuff! Especially when you have small spaces.  Wall-mounted furniture are functional without taking away precious real estate.  I also love furniture that hides clutter.  I personally own two armoires, one for a television and one for my computer, printer, and scanner which serves essentially as my office.  However, my armoires are huge and not space-saving at all.  In fact, my cherry armoire probably weighs a few hundred pounds.  But take a look these nifty designs!!  Both are of Scandinavia designs, not surprising since those people really know how to combine form with function.  This first item that I love is from Ikea.  It is a metal "locker" of sorts to house a laptop.  You would hang this on a wall.  This would have been something I would have loved to have in my room when I was in elementary school. This item comes in different colors.  There is a built-in strap to restrain your laptop when the cabinet is in the closed position.  However, you do have to close the laptop and store it in an up right position.  Here's another wall-mounted storage solution I love!  This is from Bo Design of Bo Ekstrom.  Love this baby changer and the diaper holder!  Isn't it simply clever?  The item also comes in a different finish.  The bed of unit folds up and voila, the clutter is hidden until the next diaper change.  And with this item, you wouldn't have to worry about keeping the baby in the unit! :-)  Take a look at this amazing Bo baby chair!!  It fully reclines to become a bed.  Ummm...drool...

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