BlogPaws Fun

We (my coworker and I) recently got back from Salt Lake City for BlogPaws and I must say what a great time we had! The weather was incredible (perhaps too much so) with clear skies and a scorching 100 degrees each day we were there. I even managed to get some sun by the pool without burning. Go me!

It was so great to meet some of my Twitter friends in person for the first time as well as reconnecting with some old friends from my other BlogPaws trip. Plus I got to visit with one of my good friends who moved to SLC a few years ago!

I got to meet Paige the YouTube Border Collie! She was sooo sweet and even pawed my hand a few times :)

My coworker's flat cat and my flat Ellie at the "Flat Pet Playground"

Me giving a treat to the big flat dog

Ellie LOVED her new toy from my swag bag

Flat Ellie is ready for Blog Paws

Ellie will not be accompanying me to Salt Lake City because I don't trust putting my beloved furball in the belly of a plane, but I did manage to make a flat pet to take her place while I'm there!

Can't wait for Blog Paws!

P.S. Ellie's paw looks so great now! Just a tiny scab. :)

Wordless Wednesday: Sun spot

P.S. I'm going to BlogPaws this year!! Hope to see you there!

Change in plans

Life has a crazy way of happening, that's for sure. I will no longer be able to make it to BlogPaws this year, by choice, because something else came up.

I have been selected by Yahoo! as one of their top social media contestants in a promotion they recently ran and they are sending me+1 to New York! Coincidentally, it occurs at the same time as BlogPaws, and sorry DC, but my heart belongs to NYC. Plus I'm super excited about learning about social media through the likes of a giant company like Yahoo!.

Through the month of September I will be begging for your help to click the links that I will subsequently post in hopes of winning the grand prize of a new Macbook Air. The winner is determined by who has the most influence, in other words, who gets the most clicks on their links.

In other news, Ellie gets to spend the next two weeks with Goldie because I'm watching her all this week and then my sister will be watching Ellie next week when I'm in NY. Should be a handful lots of fun.

BlogPaws 2011: 2 Weeks!

BlogPaws is in two weeks, I'm so excited! Seems like just yesterday that I was at BlogPaws 2010.

This year, it's in Tyson's Corner, VA which is about 20 minutes outside of Washington D.C. It also means that my flight is about as long as possible, across the country from Seattle. While the hotel and event are pet-friendly, I won't be bringing Ellie because I have a fear of putting her in the belly of a plane.

I'm looking forward to meeting Caren from Cat Chat for the first time and seeing Angie from Catladyland again!

Who else is going? :)

Mom is boring, so I'm gonna blog

Me and mom are back at work together! She is soooo boring, I keep whining at her to play with me and she just tells me "go lay down". Ugh!
But the good thing is that she brought me back tons of awesome toys from BlogPaws! There was a green alligator toy with 16, yes 16 squeakers in it! I just killed the last one this morning. :)

Anyway, I wanted to get on here because my doggy friends in the shelter are in need and I found one of mom's papers that says I can help!
It said that if I write about Pedigree's Adoption Drive in my blog, then they will donate a 20 pound bag of dog food to a shelter! I used to be in a shelter, so I know that they are in need of donations.

Here's the info if you wanna post about it on your blog and get some food donated too. I think you should!

(Click to see the large version)

Learning and Head Tilting

Today was a whirlwind of BlogPaws classes in which I met lots of people and learned a LOT. There was a very moving speech this morning by Mike Arms that had the entire room in tears. (You can watch it here.)

Mike Arms speaking (note the cardboard doggie cutout!)

It was also fun to see that those who couldn't bring their actual dog, cat, or ferret brought photos or cardboard cutouts of their pets! See the photo above!

After the conference, I had a bit of time so I got on video chat with Jon who had gotten Ellie back from my sister. So I got to video chat with her as well and it was so hilarious-- she recognized my voice but was quite confused about the whole process because she kept tilting her head from side to side. Loved it!

Then I went out to dinner with Angie (@catladyland) and Janiss (mom of @sparklecat). It's a warm night so we ate outside and got to see the town and people-watch. After, we got gelato which was amazing! It's been a great day and I'm sort of sad that it all ends tomorrow!

The city

So many choices, and this was only half of the display!

BlogPaws Day 1!

I made it safely to Denver and am sitting in my hotel room, up a little too late as I'm sooooo tired but I have to post pictures so far.

Me in the elevator :)

So I arrived at the hotel and was immediately more excited because of the dog sitting outside, the pictures of dogs inside the hotel, treat jars on the counters, and BlogPaws paw print stickers all over the floor!

Look! A BlogPaw!

The event began and we first just mingled around all of the booths and met lots of people and the sponsors. Not to mention, collected a LOT of free stuff (who knows how I'm going to fit this all in my suitcase on the way home...)

Then there was an opening reception with dinner and a few introductions and a performance! It was awesome! Afterward, I hung out with my fellow video contest winner, Angie (@catladyland) and Janiss (@sparklecat's mom).

Soooo tired, k more tomorrow!

The performance!

Me and Angie

I'm going to BlogPaws, follow me live!

I just printed out my plane ticket for BlogPaws -- my flight is at 11:25am tomorrow! I am super excited, and I really want to share the whole experience with everyone which is the purpose of this post.

I will be tweeting live throughout the event via @doggylove86 and @Trupanion so make sure you're following both! I will also try to post blogs as well.

Unfortunately, Ellie will not be accompanying me to the dog-friendly hotel. She is going to have sleepovers with her friend Goldie and will still be coming to work in my place (maybe she'll get some stuff done for me!)

An old picture of Ellie and Goldie

I'm Going to BlogPaws!

Guess what! Thanks to all your help (and the help of friends, family, coworkers, friends of friends, etc.) my video won and I'm going to BlogPaws West!

I received the e-mail yesterday (Thursday) but had to hold off on announcing it anywhere (so difficult not to tweet!) because the folks at BlogPaws wanted to announce the winners today.

I will be spending September 9th through the 11th in Denver meeting tons of pet people and tweeple! Unfortunately, Ellie will be staying home (I really wish she could come with) but she and I will Skype and tweet at each other while I'm away. ;)

In case you missed it, here is the video that won me the trip!