Weekend outdoor adventures

On Sunday I decided to get up and outside early before the day got too warm, so I took Ellie to Marymoor dog park bright and early in the morning.

When I first got Ellie, she loved to play with other dogs and go say hello to every dog and person she saw. These days, she seems more interested in claiming the entire 42 acre park by leaving her mark.
She marked...

Said hello...

And marked some more.

On the way back, we went to a blueberry farm where I picked around 2 pounds of blueberries to make some yummy treats! Ellie was very good and hung out in the grass while I picked.

Ellie's Adoption Story

Disclaimer: This post is my entry into the BlogPaws Blog Carnival Contest sponsored by BISSELL Homecare, Inc. I'm hoping to win it for my favorite shelter! 
 
I love telling the story of how I met Ellie because it was such an exciting time in my life.

I have been a dog-lover my entire life, and have never lived without a dog until I went off to college. Even then, I made frequent trips home to visit the family dogs. I was fortunate to move in with my sister and her dog during my Junior year, but knew that when I was close to graduating that I'd get a dog of my own.

Ellie quickly adjusted to her new home

The time finally came and I was ready to adopt a dog and I quickly learned that it was really difficult to find the type of dog I was looking for. After volunteering at a shelter for about 6 months and seeing dogs come and go (with whom I completely fell in love) I had no idea how hard it would be to find the dog that I would dedicate the next 10+ years of my life to.

I was on Petfinder.com daily, looking at dogs within a 50 mile radius.
My criteria:

• Female
• Young (around 3 years or younger) but not too young (preferably past the puppy stage)
• Short hair
• Medium build

One morning while I was interning, I was checking Petfinder which had become part of my morning routine, and I saw her. "Keiki" was what the shelter called her, and they included a YouTube video of someone petting her. In the video, she rolled over on the grass and let the person rub her belly. I was instantly in love!

Unfortunately, the shelter didn't open until 2pm so I had to wait a few hours before I could go there and snatch her up before anyone else could. I begged my boss to allow me to leave early that day and thankfully he allowed it.

When I got to the shelter, my heart was pounding. I was so nervous and excited to meet this dog, and hoped that no one else had adopted her already.

Well as you can see, the rest is history as she is here with me today, my little Ellie (I really couldn't put up with the name Keiki, and she had only been given the name a few days prior so I knew it would be fine to change it).

I delightedly shared my success story on Petfinder's forums a few weeks later along with a photo which has somehow made it onto their official Twitter background! How cool is that?!

Ellie is part of @Petfinder's Twitter background!

Yahoo! for New York

Photo by Chris

As I mentioned previously, I got an amazing opportunity to go to New York and learn from the best of the best at Yahoo! about social media. I was very fortunate to be able to bring a "plus one", Chris, my boyfriend.
Unfortunately, I didn't know until we got there that he wasn't allowed to come to the learning sessions with me, it was for "insiders" only. So I guess each of the 9 plus ones would have to hang out on their own all morning of Thursday and Friday until our sessions were over.

Highlights of the trip:

1. We got lots of awesome Yahoo! swag and learned a bunch about writing for the web thanks to the author of Yahoo!'s official style guide, Chris Barr. (see photo 1)
2. Yahoo! took us to dinner and a Broadway show, "Rock of Ages" which was so great. I've been rocking out to 80s music ever since.
3. I got to try lots of different yummy cupcakes and get inspired.
4. The weather was beautiful-- oh yeah, except for the part where we got stuck in Hurricane Irene. It poured all night and was windy all day. (see photo 3) Then it went back to being beautiful.
5. Our flight on Sunday night was canceled due to the weather. We couldn't get another one out until Tuesday night. We silently delighted in the fact that Irene prolonged our vacation so we could enjoy the rest of New York.
6. I woke up early to be on the Today show. Got my 15 seconds of fame! (see photo 4)
7. Tuesday's flight was delayed which made us miss the second leg of our flight from Chicago to Seattle, so we were stuck in Chicago for the night. Luckily, Chris's best friend (who plays for the White Sox I might add) lives in Chicago so we stayed at his swanky apartment.

While it was a little stressful missing 3 whole days of work that I wasn't planning on missing, I absolutely loved getting those two extra sunny days in New York to explore and play tour guide for Chris.

Photos:

Photo 1: lots of Yahoo! swag

Photo 2: the view from Yahoo!'s 43rd floor

Photo 3: Central Park is closed due to Irene!

 

Photo 4: My appearance on the Today show!

Click here to see more pictures and read about my cupcake experiences in New York.

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? :)

Backyard BBQ

It's been a while since I've updated this blog! I have been busy baking and updating my other blog, as well as getting outside on lots of walks! This past weekend, we went to a BBQ for which I baked some really fun cupcakes (see below)!

Most recent news: Ellie ate half a stick of butter. Yes, 1/4 cup!
I was baking cupcakes and used a reduced recipe in which I cut off 2 out of 8 tablespoons that are in a stick. After coming back from happy hour, I find the butter wrapper on the floor with only about 2 tablespoons left, so I guess Ellie ate 4 tablespoons before she decided she'd had enough. The good news is that she hasn't thrown up or had any other tummy issues so far!

Tired after playing ball at the BBQ

Click to see more pics!

Ellie, My Hero

Last night I was shutting my bathroom door, which is a sliding door, when suddenly a spider about the size of a quarter drops down on a thread from the top of the door. It landed on the floor and while I was processing the act of getting my vacuum, it quickly started scurrying around on the bathroom floor. This thing was quick!

I jumped out of the bathroom, thinking that maybe the carpet was like hot lava to spiders and that it would stay on the linoleum. Knowing I didn't have enough time to grab the vacuum (because the spider would probably hide somewhere and then I wouldn't know where it is and be freaked out all night long) I quickly called Ellie over.

She loves to chase flies and other bugs so I knew she'd be up for this challenge. She quickly got to pouncing on the thing, which evaded her attacks a couple of times. Finally, she snatched it up in her mouth, chomped on it a couple of times and then swallowed. I could tell the thing was putting up a fight inside her mouth because she was making movements with her tongue as though she was trying to force it down.

Still shaking from fear, I brought Ellie over to the pantry where I gave her a huge treat to wash that disgusting thing down. She saved my life!

"What? What'd I do?"