Atta boy!

I think it's fair to say that this time around as dog owners we're more confident and competent. Not only that but I think our boy Darwin is exceptionally bright. I think President Obama and family would enjoy a labradoodle!

Anyhoo, Chris has been working on newspaper retrieval and Darwin's been doing quite well for a couple of weeks. Here's our boy looking rather proud methinks!

Obamacupcakes!

Per my previous post, here is our version of the Obamacupcakes!
Thanks again to Vanessa and Alpha+Mom!

Wow.. for more ode to Obama-cupcakes.. check this blog out!

Inauguration Day

I have a feeling of profound patriotic pride today. So much so, that I proudly put our flag out.

It is a historical day in many ways. Maggie wanted to stay home from school to watch Barack Obama be sworn in as the 44th President. Thankfully her teacher put the broadcast on in class - yay!

I have alot of hope for the future and as I work I can see the flag billowing in the wind outside of my office and I smile.



Later, I will bake cupcakes and decorate them for today's occasion thanks to the idea of my friend Vanessa who is a super blogophile and always finds the neatest things!

Caveat Emptor!!!!

I usually vote with my feet. If I don't like service or product I won't go back. After alll, we work hard for our money. We don't have a magic money tree growing in our backyard (as much as I wish I did).

This is the first time in my life where I've had such poor service, lack of goods. apparent apathy and obfuscation from a company I feel compelled to warn others.
DO NOT SHOP AT SAHALIE!

Chris ordered my Christmas pressies from them on December 12th. He got one smaller item but not until after Christmas. As for the other two... one was "staged for shipping" from December 26th until January 7th when it finally shipped. We are still waiting for USPS to deliver. Did I mention their shipping fees were userous? The last item has been "on the docks" for about two weeks now with no promise of ship date. He called Monday the 12th and asked it be shipped overnight immediately. They said they would.

Thursday the 15th he called and it was still "staged" and no shipping info. Additionally they kept telling Chris they don't have a way to track a package. WHAT?!? When he finally spoke to a manager they said they weren't sure it was even in stock anymore since it had gone on sale since the order over a month ago. Apparently a call to the warehouse to see if something is in stock is sort of a difficult task for a company that sells goods and ships "since 1972". The sad thing is the amount of apathy and lack of motivation the customer service people had toward us. No one was willing to think outside of the box or take it upon themselves to research further. They simply said "sorry that's the way it is".

The other thing they told him was that they were overwhelmed this holiday season and caught off guard. I'm sorry but in this economy a smallish company should be GRATEFUL for the business and be prepared to serve their customers at 110%.


My poor hubby was fraught my Christmas pressie was not only late but apparently never shipping. I told him to cancel it because it was not worth this daily aggravation. So there it is. Sahalie stinks. If you like anything in Sahalie, simply look it up because I found other items on other sites. BTW, he ordered my replacement gift last night and this morning got a shipment notification. How hard is that?



So if you value your dollar, want good products at decent prices without being gouged on shipping (not that you'll ever GET the item anyway) then DO NOT SHOP AT SAHALIE.

Happy New Year!

Well, I've let quite a while pass between postings. Let's see a bit has happened. My 37th birthday, Christmas, New Year's, we got a new puppy!

So let's focus on the furry one. It all happened so fast one November afternoon. One minute we were walking past a neighbors house and their German Boxer was outside and I admired her mentioning a dog would be great save for my horrible newly developed dog allergies. The dad mentioned a friend of his is severely allergic to dogs and has labradoodles.

Next thing you know I'm on Google searching labradoodles and found a bunch of sites, but was drawn to one in particular, Brasken Kennels. We weren't actually thinking about a new puppy until Spring of 2009, but Kristen and Brandon happened to have one puppy left from a recent litter. So in an effort to ascertain if we were truly going to have no allergy problems, we planned a visit down there to play and get a sniff test.

Kristen and Brandon were just the nicest folks. Right away you can tell they are "good people" and care about their pups and the parents. We got to play with a pup from their very first litter, Jack and he was our litmus test. I got in there and took a big whiff into the nape of his neck and I made sure to touch my eyes and nose without washing my hands just to see if I'd have a reaction. To our happy surprise neither Maggie or I had a problem! That's when we met him.... Orange Collar Boy.

Let me just say there is truly nothing cuter than seeing 6 week old puppies bounding toward you in their clumsy roly poly way. Orange wasn't as overtly friendly as a few... he wasn't the alpha but he wasn't a pushover either. He played with us for a while and when it was time for us to go, he waddled over to the fence to give us a sniff goodbye when none of the other puppies had. Ahhhhh true love had smote us!

Well, two weeks later we left Disneyland.. one of the first times I've ever seen Maggie EAGER to leave Disneyland and head home.... all because we were on our way back up to get our pup whom we lovingly named Darwin.

Darwin has given us alot of joy and we're so excited to be dog owners once more. It's a blast having a puppy and watching him grow and grow. Add to that Chris and I have dicussed (though not definitively yet) that a sibling for Darwin might be a good idea down the road. Never say never!

Here are a few photos of our Darwin.

The Art of Racing in the Rain

One of the best reads ever! This is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it to everyone .. especially if you are a dog owner. It's touching, funny and poignant.