The day after Thanksgiving, while everyone heads to the local shopping mall, I decided that it would be a great time to hit the Natural History Museum.  I have not been to that museum since I was about 10 when my father took our family there.  So we packed a picnic lunch with left-over turkey, mash potato, and stuffing and headed down to the museum.  The Natural History Museum is located in Exposition Park across the street from my Alma Mater USC.

Besides dinosaurs, the Natural History Museum also boasts a huge gem stone collection which I looked forward to seeing since I like shiney things. :-)  It was the perfect day to spend at the museum, there were just the right amount of people casually strolling about.  I can only imagine what it was like at a mall! 

I also took some pics at the museum, enjoy!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We spent Thanksgiving with a few good friends and of course lots of food.  Toby was an angel, quietly chewing on his raw hide under the table while we dined on yummy turkey, stuffing, sweet potato, green beans, baked sweet
bread, and cranberry sauce.  Many things to be thankful for.

I've been extremely busy at work lately.  I mean "busy" like the-second-I-get-
into-my-office-I-am-checking-voicemail,-email,-and-running-off-to-meetings-
busy. It has been like that for two weeks now. But two days ago, I got into my office, sat down in my chair about to tackle my 20 emails when I turned around and saw this huge head (left) staring at me from across the hall in my co-worker's office. 

Well, the head that was staring at me was not exactly like the head to the left...it was still bald.  Turns out someone got my co-worker the Shrek Chia Pet for her birthday.  What will they think of next??  The scary thing is, the real Shrek doesn't even have hair!  So why would someone give him sprouts hair??  But the most disturbing thing is that my co-worker smeared the seed solution on his ears too.  Thank goodness she didn't put any seeds in his nostrils...

So now I can look forward to the next few weeks at work when Shrek's sprout hair starts to grow in.  All I can say is...kids, don't try this at home!

Tis allergy season in LA.  But then again, it's allergy season 3/4 of the year in LA.  Southern California seems to have more allergens than any othe place in the country, and I don't mean just for people.  It appears that many dogs these days are also suffering from allergies that translate into scratching, licking, and chewing behaviors.  It isn't until recently that I realized that Toby's obsessive paw chewing is due to severe allergies.  Allergic to what you ask?  I don't know...I could spend $1000 to have him tested only for the vet to tell me that he's allergic to pollen and grass.  But that won't help Toby!  I initially put Toby on doggie benadryl (Banophen) which did not work.  After much research on the internet, I discovered that I could give him an OTC antihistamine (Diphenhydramine) which I was taking for my occasional allergies.  There's really no difference between human and dog antihistamine so don't let vets fool you into buying expensive medication for your pooch.  So now, Toby and I are taking the same medication for our allergies and he's practically abandoned licking!!!

Happy anniversary to me!! I've been officially blogging for one year now!  I hope you've enjoyed reading about my mundane life living with a dorky Golden Retriever.  I am still having a lot of fun so I will continue with blogging for now.  Why do I blog?  I am a nerd by day but the web allows me to live out my creative side.  I am not very good with the performing arts, i can't paint.  I can draw but don't get inspired to draw very much.  So the web is the perfect medium for me to write and post pictures.  Prior to blogging, I spent many years developing my personal website as a hobby. After discovering blogging a year ago I have focused mainly on posting blogs during my free time.  I am starting to get a bit tired of my blog design...so maybe it's time to change up my blog page.  We'll see...I apologize for my lack of posting these few weeks but I've been swamped at work these days.  I will have more posts in a few weeks.  Happy Thursday!

I ususally don't like fruit juices too much because most of them are way too sweet for me.  But recently I found Trader Joe's sparkling pomegranate juice.  It very refreshing and tart.  Yummy, and it's not as sweet as sparkling apple juice.  Turns out that it isn't pure pomegranate juice, I guess that would be too tart and too expensive to make.  instead, they blend pomegranate with several berry juices. 

Some people may be wondering right about now, what is pomegranate??  It is this wonderful red fruit full of tiny juice sacs with a tiny seed inside each sac..  You can eat the seeds and all but I choose not to eat the seeds.  So you basically chew on the juice sacs and spit out the tiny seeds.  Yes, like all berries, pomegranate seeds WILL stain!  And it is pretty time consuming to eat a pomegranate fruit.  Which is why I love this drink.  All the flavor and none of the mess.  This is the first time I've seen this item at Trader Joe's...hopefully it isn't just a seasonal thing. 

From drawing to implementation...I had an idea for Halloween this year.  Since I've been a nerd for so long, I thought I'd be someone from the other end of the spectrum.  I decided that i will be a USC cheerleader and Toby shall be Traveler, the Trojan mascot. 

My costume was easy...a white shirt, skirt, and blonde wig.  But for Toby...how to transform a dog into a white horse.  After much thought I recalled a recent Ikea purchase...a soft white felt blanket with fringes for $3!  I love blankets because I'm always cold.  So when Ikea came out with these cheap blankets I bought 6 of them in various colors.  The white one was perfect for Toby's horse costume! 

I first drew out the concept and made some crude measurements.  I then cut out the parts from the blanket. The fringes were cut out and sewn onto the hood for the mane.  I added a fringe tail and perky ears and some strategically placed tabs with velcro and Toby is transformed into a majestic white horse! :-)

As you can see, Toby really enjoys being a horse.  Actually, he became all stiff after I put the costume on him.  That makes it very easy for me to take pictures of him. 


He managed to keep his costume on at Mr. BAW's party long enough for some pictures.  I took his costume off since it was getting a bit warm at the party.  Toby did get to enjoy himself and was completely exhausted after three hours of partying! :-)

Here are some highlights of the Halloween party...

Toby and I in our costumes. 

There's no fear...Underdog (aka Mr. BAW) is here!  He rescued me from an invasion of poisonous spiders in the house.

Amongst the food and festivities, some very notable party guests made it to the party:
John Basedow (of Fitness-Made-Simple)
Austin Powers (Man of Mystery)
Axl Rose (of Guns N' Roses)
Matt Leinart (of the Cardinals)
The Burger King himself!
The Flintstones and The Rubbles

Happy Halloween!