boulder halloween

October 31, 2018 in family, hank, holiday, pet

halloween in boulder is outrageous. when we stepped out to go trick or treating our first year in colorado, i thought we’d wandered onto a movie set. literally EVERY house in our neighborhood was decorated, and not just with a pumpkin or two but with strings of orange lights, giant spiders and webs stretched across the houses, skeletons and zombies and werewolves emerging from the lawns and ghosts and ghoulies hanging from the trees. and when you ring the bell, the homeowners answer in full costume. sometimes they jump out at you and sometimes they just smile and offer the kids candy and the parents a glass of wine or a beer. yes - if you accept all the libations presented, you will be quite tipsy by the end of your neighborhood rounds. there are even a few famous addresses that do full spook houses… i took lucy to the one on 10th street when she was a little too young and we were both traumatized … i nearly peed my pants when a gazillion enormous spiders dropped on us and she let out a wail that lasted for at least two blocks. we had to retire for the evening after that.

coot lake

October 26, 2018 in family, garden, hank, pet

now that hank is on a diet, we have been trying to step up our exercise routine and we made an amazing discovery… COOT LAKE! coot lake is the perfect kind of nature for us… there is always parking across the street, the paths are flat and well maintained and we can circle the lake in converse or even low boots. there are lots of nice dogs for hank to romp around with (he can go off leash!) and there are benches for me to sit on, as well as little poems posted on signs here and there. and of course, there is the pretty water to look at. one of the hardest things for me about living in boulder is that there is no ocean. i have never lived anywhere before that wasn’t bumped up against a big body of water and sometimes i feel a bit panicky about being landlocked. certainly, a lake isn’t the same thing as an ocean, but it is still blue and has movement and reflection and alleviates the dry, dusty feel of the relentless colorado sun.

hank is on a diet...

October 09, 2018 in family, hank, pet

hank is on a diet. we took him to the vet a few weeks ago because he had a weird boo boo on his lip and the vet told me he should have a waist. he was thirty-two pounds. i WAS wondering how big he ought to be because his dad is only twenty-six pounds. six pounds more on someone the size of a breadbox does seem like a lot, but i HATE diets. the vet asked me how much i was feeding him and i replied, “3/4 cup of kibble with water and a spoonful of wet food twice a day, like the breeder told me to do.” (i didn’t mention all the treats and extras that i gIve him throughout the day… just like when you fill out those forms at the doctor’s and they ask you how frequently and how many glasses of wine you drink…who is ever truly honest then?) “yes,” said the vet, “but that was when he was a puppy. now that he is over a year, he is a regular dog and that’s too much.” i still consider hank a puppy - his first birthday was just in september. also, it doesn’t really make sense to me that as he gets bigger, he should have less food. i feed my kids way more food now that they are eight and twelve, than i did when they were babies… bigger kids, bigger portions. i guess that’s not how it works with dogs. and it never occurred to me to alter how much i feed hank because i am a rule follower. the breeder gave me a big binder with all kinds of instructions about how to take care of hank and i have been following it (mostly) to a tee.

south side

July 12, 2018 in hank, family, pet, travel

i grew up on the north side of berkeley, right near the little tunnel that runs under the marin circle and off a shopping street full of restaurants and quirky boutiques called solano. my friends all lived very close by… mostly because i got lost so easily and could only have friends whose houses i could find. this was in the days before mothers drove you all around the world for playdates. i can still distinctly picture the map my friend cynthia’s mother drew for me so i could get to their house. at the time we were in a rental behind the library and i had to walk three long blocks past the firehouse (she made a perfect circle that i marveled at, to indicate the station, as berkeley’s no. 4 is cyclindrical - designed in 1960 by ratcliff architecture) and turn right on los angeles for half a block. i carried that map with me for months (yes - i am a SLOW geographic learner) when i was going to her house.

jelly bean

July 05, 2018 in hank, travel, family, pet

the first time it happened, the kids had taken hank over to their father’s house. i got an excited phone call AND photos. i had really hoped that we would never have to deal with this because hank is so mellow, but there it was, a glossy, hot pink protrusion coming out of hank’s nether regions. i have to say, if you didn’t think about what it was, it was really quite pretty… so shiny and my favorite hue of pink. it is rumored that someone touched it (before really understanding what it was) but that has not been confirmed.

strawberry shortcake

June 05, 2018 in family, pet

every summer when i was growing up, there would be one night where we had strawberry shortcake for dinner. no broccoli or pork chops or mac n’ cheese… just a heaping plateful of home-made(ish) strawberry shortcake. (i say “ish” because my mother always made the shortcake recipe right off the bisquick box… which is DELICIOUS, by the way.) there was nothing more exciting for me than having dessert for dinner. it literally felt like christmas in july.

milestones

May 22, 2018 in family, pet, commercial interior

recently, hank had to get his THIRD collar. his neck just keeps getting bigger and bigger. i certainly didn’t expect him to have a swan neck like audrey hepburn… he IS a bulldog after all, but i have been surprised by his rapid growth. he also now weighs in at TWENTY-SEVEN pounds… more than half the weight of my daughter. i think his bones must be made of steel. while i am grateful for his sturdiness and good health (except when he eats chapsticks) his many milestones in such a short period have left me reeling. only two months ago, i was working at the kitchen counter with hank at my feet and all of a sudden he was just GONE. i looked all around the room and was wondering if he’d somehow left when i heard pattering overhead. somehow he’d managed to go up the stairs all by himself. until that point, we’d been carrying him up and down. it reminded me of when my son was about four months old and i left him in the middle of the room on a blanket and went to the bathroom. he was also gone when i came back. i finally found him in a corner and realized that he had learned to roll over… and over and over. unfortunately, he could only go in one direction so he was a bit stuck.

cotillion for hank

February 27, 2018 in pet, family

i have always had a bit of a southern obsession. i loved watching gone with the wind as a child… i was mesmerized by the big hoop skirts decorated with intricate ribbons and lace and layered over all the petticoats and cinched up corsets. i spoke with a terrible southern accent for the entirety of my fourth grade year, nearly driving my father out of the house. in my twenties, whenever i suffered a break up, i would return to gone with the wind and read in the middle of the night when i woke up miserable. “fiddle dee dee… i’ll think about that another day!” i’d tell myself when i couldn’t stop ruminating over whoever had broken my heart… just like scarlet. in my early thirties, i was invited to a wedding in north carolina. there were loads of southerners there, but there was one proper belle that i became fixated on. she was newly pregnant so she had a perfect little baby bump poking out beneath all of her floral empire waist sundresses. she always had a matching cashmere cardigan draped over her shoulders that never fell off, even though the top wasn’t buttoned. her husband wore pink pants and immaculately ironed button downs and loafers all weekend. i studied her and followed her around all of the wedding parties and events like a stalker. i couldn’t wait for the bride to return from her honeymoon so i could interrogate her about my belle. i learned that all of my belle’s towels were monogramed and every christmas her entire extended family had a huge photo shoot where they wore matching clothes. apparently, holiday cards are very important in proper southern families raising belles and gentlemen.

brown-haired family

February 07, 2018 in family, pet

my whole life, when i envisioned getting a dog, i pictured a brown-haired dog. we are a brown-haired family and more importantly, we have dark wood floors throughout our house. the flooring was an intentional choice because i can’t stand the sight of my long, brunette, fallen-out strands on white tile or light floors. also, i wear A LOT of black and navy, even in summer, and didn’t want light dog hairs on my clothes. so last july when we got permission from my dad to get a puppy (yes - at 48 i still felt i needed to ask because the vikings STILL hadn’t won the superbowl) and we’d zeroed in on a frenchie, we immediately decided we would get a “brindle” because they have very dark brown/black hair like we do.

hank is perfect

January 23, 2018 in pet

hank is perfect. he sleeps through the night and always wakes up in a good mood. he is super quiet…he has only ever barked at his own reflection in the piano or when he is trying to play with another pup. (so maybe he won’t make the best guard dog?) he sleeps A LOT so i am still able to get work done. he is perfectly happy to binge watch the crown with me. he allows my daughter to dress and and undress him in his various hoodies and weird little outfits she creates. he hops around the yard like a bunny and thoroughly enjoys the simple things like chewing sticks and sniffing mulch. like me, he is a bit lazy… on our last walk he would only go as far as one and a half houses (and in my neighborhood the houses are very close together!) before he sat down and refused to go further. i had to carry him the one and a half houses back home. and of course, he is absolutely the most ADORABLE little guy you’ve ever seen.

sheepskins

January 16, 2018 in residential interior, pet

we got our new puppy, hank, just over a month ago. even though it was december, his first few weeks in boulder, colorado were pretty temperate. he was potty trained fairly quickly as he loves running and sniffing around in the backyard and would just do his business in the midst of his exploring. (except at other people’s houses - so sorry liz, bette, anne marie and adam!) one night, however, we were both caught off guard when we came downstairs for a 2 am potty and the whole back lawn was covered in snow. after delicately tapping one front paw in the icy whiteness, he made a beeline back into the house without making his potty. luckily, one lounge chair had been left out, so there was a two foot square of grass free of snow. that is the only place hank would potty until the snow melted. and i would have to carry him over the snow to that spot. when he was safely back inside, he would run right to the big sheepskin rug and recuperate from his trials of exposure to the snow.

if the vikings win the super bowl...

December 07, 2017 in family, pet

my father grew up in minneapolis. he was a HUGE vikings fan. we literally had to clear out of the house whenever they were playing so he could focus on the game without the distraction of little children. (maybe also because my mother didn’t want us exposed to the salty stream of comments my father would yell at the tv.) i became a devoted fan as well, because what i wanted most in life was a dog. my father used to tell me that “if the vikings win the super bowl, i will get you a puppy.” each year, i followed their progress and kept track of their stats. i wore their colors and got in fights on the bus defending their honor - i was the only vikings fan in my elementary school because at this point we were living in northern california. the vikings actually made it to the super bowl FOUR times, but they never won. and i never got a puppy. i don’t know what my father would have done had they actually won, because my brother is so severely allergic to dogs that we would have had to sell him had we brought a dog into the house. i don’t think my parents would have done this, regardless of my father’s promise, because they really loved my brother. to this day, the vikings have never won the super bowl and i have never had a puppy. until now…