Dogs

So I'm housesitting/making-sure-my-friend's-16 year-old-stays-out-of-trouble for the next few days and they have a cat and two dogs.  A-Jax, is a great looking, very sturdy, black American lab, and is top dog.  While Boots, looks like some breed of herding dog with golden-black, burnt colored, fur.  Clearly Boots was abused in his previous life before my friend's family took him in from the wild.  It took one evening for him to warm up to me, but he did and now we're friends (and my favorite).

Yesterday and this morning, I've been woken up and begin to hear their whines.  They want out to run the large lot that the house sits on.  They get so excited when they see me and start hopping up and down and let out a few barks.  They scurry out the door and then run, and run, and run around the property.  They do come back to the back door and sit to see if I'm there and then they take off running again.  Yesterday I interpreted that as wanting in, but they'd only run in the house for a second and then beg to be let out again.  So today, I'm more savvy to their routine.  They now are waiting at the back door for longer periods; most likely because their hungry.  They can't eat till the boy is up and moving because he feeds them.

It's fun having the animals.  I just wish that it hadn't snowed and it was nice weather so I could have them go on a walk with me.

Saturday morning

March has been a month of visiting friends.  Leslie came the second weekend at the last minute and it was very enjoyable.  Unexpected for me, she brought me Trader Joe's Triple Ginger Snaps!  They are my favorite and it was such a surprise!  We got some good food and tea and kept ourselves so busy that I got a stomach ache.  The weather was beautiful that weekend that we walked down to the River Market Saturday morning and really indulged in the produce.  We packed lunches and then headed for the Nelson to eat outside on the lawn and then went through the Asian exhibits.  We stopped by the library and then hung out in cosmetics at Halls for a little bit.  The weekend was fun and I felt lucky that she could come in on a Friday evening and then leave Monday morning while I was on my way to work.  We got all the time we wanted!

Last weekend Emily came to visit!  We also had some good food (and drinks!).  We were all over Kansas City on Saturday.  We went shopping on the Plaza (a totally gorgeous, gorgeous day) so she could see our massive GapBody, hit Standard Style, J.Crew, and Anthropologie.  We had lunch at Mixx (I took Leslie for dinner there her first night) and then headed out to meet up with Gina at Nordstrom where she was working a Bobbi Brown event.  We looked for gowns for Michael's brother's wedding and I found nothing!  But then, we got some jewelry making supplies together and Emily broke out her tools and we made some fun necklaces while watching the newly released, "Twilight."

On the subject of the Twilight series, I was very resistant to picking up those books at all since it's the rage!  I was encouraged to read the first book and I hesitantly did, but I totally got into it and I just finished the fourth book at the beginning of this week.  What great stories!  The movie, oh boy...good in some ways, unsatisfying in more.  I'm glad that I read the book first or I think I would have been discourage to after seeing the flick.

Yesterday evening I came to stay at a friend's home to keep an eye on it and her son.  So far, so good.  The bonus are the two dogs and friendly cat.  Well, there are more bonuses than that: being in a house out of downtown, on a massive lot with a green yard and lots of trees.  I just hope this weather becomes more pleasant so I can take the dogs out for walks.  The only drawback to this place is that I'm having a hard time finding anything!  Light switches are very hard to find here for the correct lights.  Oh my gosh, sounds easy right, but it's not.  This morning I couldn't find any tea or coffee, but I could easily find the kettle and the coffee pot.  Oy!

It's been a while

It's been a while since I've posted.  When I first got the idea to blog, I thought I would be writing often...guess not so much!  Keeping a private, personal journal and keeping a blog--it's a tug of war as to where to write and what to write.  Eh? *shrugs*

So I was in Boston two weeks ago and had a marvelous time!  I got in very late Friday night after work and on Saturday morning, Michael and I headed off for The Berkshires.  The Boston Symphony has an eight week summer season at Tanglewood and he gets a nice housing allowance to rent a place.  We went to check out the house he found in Richmond, MA, just a stone's throw from the New York state line.  The house couldn't have been closer to perfection.  It's about 150 years old, was a "safe house" for the mining operation (it shut down during The (first) Depression) and was recently renovated.  Saying again: the house is perfect!

About ten to fifteen minutes down the road is Great Barrington, home to McTiegue and McClelland, my favorite jewelry line that we carry at Halls.  When Michael and I walked in, Walter greeted me with a big, "hello", coming out from behind the counter to give me a hug and to be introduced to Michael.  After we had our greetings, he turned and said, "Erin, Michael; meet Jill and Yo Yo."  We turned to shake hands and there was Yo Yo Ma and his wife.  What are the chances of running into them in this tiny, out-of-the-way town in Massachusetts?  We visited for a bit and then we looked and looked.  Or maybe I just looked and looked.  We quickly ran past the time we had allotted and then had to race the two hours back to Boston so Michael could play his concert!

Sunday morning we got up, got a Zip Car (what an awesome service) and went to look about a chair.  Michael found a vintage rosewood Eames lounge and we drove the five to ten minutes to take a look.  We decided on it and towed it back home, then had brunch at Toro (my favorite!).  It had started snowing during the night and walking to the Back Bay wasn't too fun in loafers.  We stayed in the rest of the day cleaning up the chair and it ended up incredibly beautiful.  Our time together came to a close too quickly.  A massive snow storm was on it's way to Boston and I was hoping to get snowed in, but I made it out. :-(

Oh my gosh it's so hard being apart!