Confucius Nick says ...

Those with a bald head and dandruff are untrustworthy ...

I don't know - I think I tend to agree.

(P.S. Nick sits next to me at work)

Bunnies

So not only am I obsessed with Hedgehogs - I also want a rabbit. I've been trying to convince my Dad to build me a bunny hutch - with no luck. I even did an inspection of the different types of rabbits at the State Fair. I, of course, don't want the ordinary rabbit, but like the really big ones. I think it would get used to Max...
I found this crazy harness that you can buy to walk the rabbit - too funny (but you know I would buy one).

Christmas at the SPCA

One of our new annual traditions is participating in the Syracuse SPCA holiday fundraiser - Pictures with Santa! We waited over an hour in line with both dogs, but they loved it. Max touched noses with a lot of dogs. He was so good for the picture - he stepped right up and sat down in front of Santa. They only took two shots and got a great picture. This is one that I took with my camera. Neika likes to sit on the bench with Santa. She jumped up and gave him a little kiss. I wasn't able to get a good picture of her with my camera, but the one we purchased at the SPCA was really good.

I also found another pet - a Wallaby. Essential a mini-kangaroo. A women in line right behind us brought her wallaby in for the photo. We found our she runs a travelling exotic petting zoo - which I tried to persuade my parents I should have for my B'day! It was a pretty cool little guy. I guess they are pretty easy to care for and don't make much of a mess. It's on my short list now.

Not off to a good start

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to make sure I posted on my Blog a few times a week. So here it is - January 26th and I'm posting for the first time.

Things have not changed too much here over the past several months. I spent much of November and December putting together holiday gifts. My favorite is an Advent Tree that I created for Nora, my cousin's youngest daughter. She is in love with all things sparkly and of course, pink. I created 25 mini shopping bags out of pink paper and ribbon and labeled them with a day leading up to Christmas. I had a lot of fun purchasing tiny gifts for each bag. Mostly they were filled with earings, bracelets and candy, but also included: temporary tatoos, many Hello Kitty items and erasers. The tree was finished off with a hot pink tree skirt (I love Hobby Lobby) and a customized box containing all the trimmings.

I was able to make a visit to Massachusetts in December for work and also catch up with a bunch of friends (I miss everyone!). The current and former Res/Title crowd met up for dinner at Sakura Tokoyo in Worcester. We used to have our holiday party there - so it was a fitting location. Check out Julie trying to catch zuchinni! I also had an opportunity to catch up with many of my work contacts and to do some visits with Anthony.

Cascade Settlement Agency is off to a good start. We have been up and running since October 1st! Here are the girls I work with holding a copy of our first funding check.

I guess that's it for today. I have some holiday pics of Max that I'll post later.

Halloween

My new office is into Halloween so I decided to take part. The Cascade Settlement Agency Team (all 3 three of us) dressed up as witches. You can't see our legs, but we all had different colored striped tights. I made us witches hats - which actually turned out pretty cool. It was me and the glue gun! (I need to start changing my Martha Stewart office persona). My Mom also whipped up a cape tht was pretty cool.

I hear there is also an Ugly Sweater contest around Christmas - guess I'll have to start looking.

Max loves animals

Max is taking his new "Country Dog" status a little too far. We have had two encounters with wild animals in the last week - not something that I'm thrilled about. Last Thursday, as I was in the middle of decorating 60 cupcakes with spiders for my office, Max went outside and encountered a SKUNK. That's right, the smelliest of all animals. We knew right away when he came back into the house. He went right into the bath tub and had a series of treatments. First a regular bath, which I knew wasn't going to do much, then a mixture of peroxide, baking soda and dish soap (which was fairly helpful) and then a follow up of white vinegar. This hour and a half spa session resulted in a less smelly and bearable Max. I will give him credit for being really good in the bath tub. He's still a little smelly if you get too close to his face, but he is very much improved.

Last night he decided to take another jaunt around the house in the dark by himself. I called him and he wouldn't come so I set out to see what he was up to. I found him barking at an opossum in the back yard. I thought it was dead and didn't want him rolling in it (another endearing thing he has done in the past). I went back out with my Dad about an hour later to remove the dead animal and it was gone - thus the saying "Playing Opossum." Which means that I was two feet from a live opossum - double yuck!

Thus the adventurs of Max, the country dog, continue.

Shout out to Amy Hayes!

It snowed yesterday in Upstate New York. Bet you can't beat that in South Carolina!

I should have some fun Halloween pictures to post tomorrow. I went with one of out closing coordinators, Jessica, today and we had our nails painted black. My department is a coven of witches - we have super fancy hats and two of us have capes. It should be fun. I guess a lot of people in the office dress up - they even have a walk-off. I might have to be missing during that.