La Petite Chic

Chopped

Photographic evidence that I'm the most indecisive person ever:

Err, yes, I decided to chop my hair off.  I love it so far, but it's only been eight hours so let's wait and see how I feel tomorrow.  The stylist did a great job though.  My hair looks much healthier and she textured and thinned it out a bit to keep it from looking like a big poof ball (which tends to happen when my hair is short).

We also went house hunting again today to give ourselves some backup options in case we don't get the foreclosed home.  We found a couple of houses that we liked, but none of them came close to our dream house.  We'll keep looking while we wait to hear back on our offer, but we're crossing our fingers that it won't even come to that.  The waiting is pure torture!

P.S.  How cute is my Lola Bean in that picture?  She's my little sassafras.

Holly

I've wrote about her here and here and here.  I've been known to cry in parking lots over encounters with look-a-like dogs, including one that actually lives in our old neighborhood.  I think I frightened her owner when I ran over to the two of them exclaiming, "Oh my god, that is Holly reincarnated!"  (The dog didn't mind the affectionate belly rubs, though). 

Clearly, I'm not over losing Holly, even now, two years later.  My eyes still well up with tears at the mention of her name and I often send Jon links to shelter dogs with any trace of husky or german shephard in their blood in the hope of finding another Holly.

The truth is, though, there will never be another Holly.  There will never be another stubborn, blue eyed/brown eyed, bird catching, spaghetti loving, brave (except when it came to thunderstorms), good natured, yellow squeaky ball chasing hound quite like her. 

I think I'll forever miss her.

"I have sometimes thought of the final cause of dogs having such short lives and I am quite satisfied it is in compassion to the human race; for if we suffer so much in losing a dog after an acquaintance of ten or twelve years, what would it be if they were to live double that time?" 
-Sir Walter Scott-

Grace Onze

Sometimes you just don't know what you're missing until you have it.  In my case, "it" happened to be Lola.  I was given Lola as a college graduation present from my grandmother.  I remember hissing under my breath to my mother, "But I don't like little dogs!"  I intended to give Lola back to my grandmother after my graduation party was over.  There was that whole business of not liking little dogs and besides, I had just graduated from college and was looking to get a job and rent a place of my own, two things that aren't really compatible with a new puppy.

In the end, there was no hope for me.  I fell in love with Lola (who remained unnamed for several days) and have never looked back.  It took me awhile to find a landlord who would let me have a pet, but she was worth the wait. 

Lola is totally me in dog form.  She's finicky and particular and loves to nap in the sunshine.  She likes to be the center of attention and her bark is worse than her bite.  She suffers from a wee bit major Napoleon complex and is a total Daddy's girl.  Her full name is Lolita Scarlett O'Hara because I knew from the beginning that she would be just like my favorite heroine, her namesake.  She is my baby girl, my darling, my Lola Bean.

Happy 6th birthday, Lola!  I am so grateful that you came into my life and really can't imagine it without you in it.  I love you, Bean!

Snuggling with mama:

 A good back scratch in the sunny grass:

 Napping with Daddy:

 Wondering who in the hell this Pleepleus character is:

 And just being her beautiful self (on neighborhood watch, of course):

Oooh La Lola...

I realize that now is the absolute worst time to even consider getting a playmate for Lola, but while browsing through the available dogs at the animal rescue group I volunteer for, I found Lola's soulmate.

Internet, meet Patches:

He's a two years old chihuahua mix which would totally make Lola a cougar (she'll be six next month), but don't you think they would make the cutest pair?

Lola already had to leave behind her boyfriend, Homer, a Bichon Frise in our neighborhood and now she'll never get to meet her chihuahua soulmate. Sorry, Lola...if we had a house, we would definitely adopt him. 

Full of Love

You know what's crazy?  Last night, I dreamed that I found two mice in our bedroom.  When I got to work this morning, I discovered that I had a little visitor in my cube over the weekend.  The foil covered chocolate heart that a co-worker left on my desk on Friday was no more, and the only thing left was the shredded foil!  Then I found not one, but two mouse turds on my desk.  Gross!!  I spent the next hour scrubbing my desk with Lysol.  Not sure if it was related to my dream in any way, but it sure was unusual!

Speaking of hearts, Jon completed melted mine on Valentine's Day.  We've never been go-all-out Valentines and prefer to spend a quiet evening at home rather than spending a lot of money on a fancy dinner in a crowded restaurant.  If you remember, I spent last Valentine's Day at the hair salon, getting my long hair chopped off for Beautiful Lengths while Jon was at class.  Clearly, Valentine's Day is not that big of a deal to us!

This year, Jon got up bright and early to go grocery shopping while I got a head start on packing.  He came home with more than just groceries.  Just look at this beautiful bouquet of a dozen and a half yellow roses, my favorite color!

 

As romantic as the start of our day was, we then spent the next eight or so hours visiting Ikea, clearing out cabinets and closets and packing moving boxes.  I honestly had no idea how much stuff we have until I actually had to start packing it.  Thankfully, clearing these little things out now is going to make the move a lot easier once we sell.  And our place?  It looks gorgeous!  The photographer is coming on Wednesday morning to take the photos for our condo's website (yes, it gets it's own website!) so I'll be sure to post them once they're up. 

Finally, around 6:00 PM, we had both had enough so we called it a day and sat down to a delicious assortment of appetizers (Asiago cheese filone, olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar, black olive tapenade and bruschetta).  And we popped open a bottle of wine that we got while in Europe last May.  It was so good!! 

 

About an hour later, Jon got started making the main course, Penne a la Vodka, my favorite pasta dish. He used a recipe that I pulled off of The Pioneer Woman's cooking site several weeks ago.  It was so delicious that I forgot to get a picture of the final product, but here's one of the garlic and onions simmering in a lot of olive oil and butter.  Mmmm....

 

As a final course, Jon whipped out an incredible Margarita Pie that he made at some point in the day while I was packing the linen closet.  The crust was to die for...it was a sinful mixture of crumbled pretzels, sugar and butter.  It's making my mouth water just to think of it!  The filling tasted almost like key lime pie, one of my favorites.  I'm definitely going to request that he make this again! 

 

And the cherry on top of this wonderfully romantic and unexpected Valentine's Day?  Jon showed he was paying attention and bought me a cookbook that I've been itching to add to my collection, Screen Doors and Sweet Tea.  It's a fantastic collection of Southern recipes and anecdotes from the author and I just adore it! 

 

It was back to reality on Sunday as we drove two truckloads of boxes and furniture to my parent's house.  I was quite nervous as I drove my Dad's pick-up truck all by myself with furniture in the back and I thought for sure that something would fall out.  I had to drive on both 495 and 95 where 90 mph is not uncommon, but I just stayed in the far right lane and kept my speed at a modest 60 mph.  Yes, people were flying by me, but I didn't lose any cargo!  Sadly, we were also dropping Lola off at her temporary home with Gram and Pop.  Once our condo lists, people can come by with their realtors all day and we just don't want to subject Lola to strange people coming in and out.  She's wary of people anyway, so I don't want to upset her.  I miss her so much already, but Jon is humoring me by letting me pet his belly when I'm feeling especially lonesome without her.  Such a good husband!

The Weekend in Photos

Great friends, great wine and great weather:

 

Run-in with Andy the wine boy, part deux:

   

A fabulous husband who makes me laugh:

 

New pumps:

 

New boots:

 

New floors to replace the above ugly carpet (to be installed by us in a few weeks):

 

A sweet nose kiss from my baby:

 

And a yummy homemade chicken pot pie, inspired by Ashley's post and autumn:

What were you all up to this weekend?

Anything to Move the Scary Bug Down the Page!

Say hi to Lola, my furbaby.  We are currently at odds because I cut her front toenails last night.  Little does she know that I'll be cutting her back toenails tonight and perhaps giving her stinky little butt a bath.  She gets revenge by licking her paws on our microfiber sofa and pretending to love her father more.  Who needs a human kid when you can have a dog who has an attitude like a teenage girl and leaves drool stains on your couch like a todder?

Notice the lick marks!

 

Giving me some 'tude.

  

Life is tough for an only-dog.

 

With a Little Help...

So, before I get to the vacation recap (tonight, perhaps?), there are few housekeeping/advice inquiries/foolishness that I would like to discuss.

First things first, my blog name.  As I mentioned yesterday, while in France I learned that "le petit" is masculine, versus it's feminine counterpart "la petite".  I have previously done a little research into getting my own domain name and was dismayed to discover that www.lepetitchic.com was already taken.  It's some sort of catering company from lord knows where.  Seriously.  Half the website is in English and the other half is in a language I don't recognize.  Anywho, I considered going the .org or .net route, but wasn't really pleased with that.  With my newfound knowledge of le petit versus la petite (and my general analness and perfectionist need to always be right!), I'm feeling the urge to transform this blog into La Petite Chic.  What do you all think?  I have been meaning to revamp my design anyway so this will give me a great reason to finally get around to doing that.  Plus, I just bought www.lapetitechic.com this morning. The new web address would link to here so I wouldn't be losing readers or archives, just my old name.  Your thoughts, please!

Second, I fell in love with this Old Navy dress before we left for Europe. 
I didn't buy it because a) it had only been on the website for a couple of weeks so I figured it would be going on sale soon and b) considering that I spent quite a bit of money on new clothes before our trip, I didn't think Jon would appreciate me buying yet another sundress when I was supposed to be saving for Europe.  So even though at one point, I had this gorgeous little dress in my shopping cart, I didn't buy it.  Ahh, self restraint, you kill me.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that I called Old Navy's customer service to inquire as to why it wasn't in any stores, but apparently some of their items only go to select locations and this dress was one of them.  Who knew?!

So anyway, while at work yesterday, I decided to check on it and see if the price had been reduced at all.  Wouldn't you know it, I couldn't find it anywhere on the website!  I frantically called their customer service and tried in vain to explain the dress.  Without an item number, however, they couldn't help me.  I called the Old Navy store closest to me and though they had never had it in stock, they were able to tell me that another store about 20 miles away did have it in stock at one time.  So I called that store and all they had left was an XL.  Not going to help me as I was looking for the XXS or XS.  I was able to get the item number from them though, so I called Old Navy's customer service back to see if they could locate one for me.  I found out that they only sell the XXS online but they were able to find me two stores (in the entire US!) that still were showing XS in stock.  They could ship it to me for the same price it would have cost to ship it from the website. 

So I called the first store in Florida.  They were showing 5 of these in XS, but they could only find the dress in gray in XS.  Crap!!  My last hope was a store in Washington state which had 2 in stock.  I called and hallelujah, they had 1 left in yellow in XS!!  That totally made my day.  And the girl I spoke with was actually from Virginia.  Go figure.  So anyway, I managed to get the last XS dress of this kind in the country.  Sure, it took me about an hour of my day but I'm thrilled.  That'll teach me to wait to buy anything.  I just hope it looks just as cute on after all of that work! 

Third, do any of you Typepad users know how to create different pages on your blog?  I have a Plus account, which is one step up from the basic subscription, but I'm pretty sure that gives me access to build different pages.  Help, please?  I can't figure it out for the life of me. 

Fourth, how do you get rid of doggy dandruff?  Poor Lola's skin is so dry and itchy right now.  I gave her a bath yesterday with oatmeal dog shampoo, but she is still scratching.  Poor baby.  She has her right ear all scratched up. 

UPDATE: So I prematurely linked to my new URL when I bought it this moring, but then I unlinked it when it didn't appear to be working.  Now I think it is working because I'm seeing hits to www.lapetitechic.com on my stat reader.  Cool!!

A Year Later

The dreary weather here in Virginia fits in perfectly with my mood.  It was a year ago today that I said goodbye to one of my very best friends; my old dog Holly.  She was one of those "once in a lifetime" dogs; the dog that you'll one day tell your children and grandchildren about.  If dogs are anything like people, I think our other two dogs probably looked at her and thought, "that's the kind of dog I want to be like when I grow up."  She was just that wonderful.

Superficially speaking, Holly was absolutely gorgeous.  She was a mixed breed of German Shepherd and Husky descent and had the beautiful black and tan markings of the Shepherd and one blue eye of the Husky.  She was strong and lean and in her younger days, quick enough to catch birds.  I often took her running with me and always felt safer with her by my side.   

I missed her desperately when I was away at college.  I always felt guilty for leaving her behind, but tried to make up for it when I was home on break by showering her with attention and walking her on the trail near my parent's house.  I didn't take her with me when I moved to the DC area after college.  She never was good with change and I didn't want to uproot her from the home she had lived in almost all her life. 

As Holly got older, she slowed down a lot and spent most of her time napping in the sun.  She got really thin and wasn't interested in food anymore.  She started having problems walking and getting up the stairs and often fell while trying to squat to pee.  We gave her arthritis medicine and that helped a little, but not a lot.  We took her to the veterinarian when she began breathing heavily all the time, even when she was laying down.  The doctor told us that there really wasn't anything we could do.  There was a problem with the flap in her throat and at any time it could fail to open and would essentially suffocate her.

That's when my mom and I decided it was most humane to have her put to sleep.  I agonized over the decision.  I had a serious breakdown two nights before her appointment and sobbed for hours, wondering if there was anything else we could do for her, if we were doing the right thing.  I knew that she was suffering and that life wasn't enjoyable for her.  She wouldn't even let me pet her anymore; she just wanted to be left alone.  Taking her to that final appointment is probably the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.  But I'm so grateful that I was there to spend those last few moments with her.  She slipped away peacefully, surrounded by my mom and I. 

One whole year has passed now, yet the pain of losing Holly hasn't subsided.  She's the whole reason I started this blog, to write about my loss, the loss of her.  I still miss her terribly.  I cry when I think of her, cry when I write about her and even cry when I see other dogs that look like her.  It's so incredible how one dog can have such an impact on your life.  It was such a privilege to have loved her and to be loved by her in return.  I will definitely share tales of her with my children and grandchildren.  Holly was just that special.

   

A Tale of Two Dogs

Before Jon and I started painting this weekend, we set out for Target and Home Depot to get the necessary supplies.  Our Target happens to be situated right next door to a Petsmart, one which sponsors pet adoptions every Saturday with the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation.  I volunteer with them every now and again and I always try to do my Target shopping on Saturdays just so I can go and visit with the dogs looking for their forever homes. 

When we pulled into the Petsmart parking lot this weekend, I spotted a dog that looked just like my Holly.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  Before Jon had even put the car in park, I was out of my seatbelt and hurrying across the street to say hello to the dog that looked just like her.  But halfway there, I stopped.  I was crying.  And the crying turned into sobbing.  Jon caught up with me just in time for me to turn into his shoulder and sob onto his shirt.  Jon was a bit bewildered because he knows just how much I savor these precious moments with the homeless animals so why was I suddenly crying? I tried to explain through my tears.  "That dog"  BAWL SNIFF SNIFF. "Looks just like"  BAWL BAWL BAWL WAILLLLLL SNIFF. "Holly"  WAILLLLLLLL SOB SOB. 

I have the delightful habit of quite often making a fool out of myself in public, but that had to take the cake.  In reality, I'm sure not too many people noticed the blubbering fool in the parking lot, but even if they did, no one said anything to me.  They've probably been there too and understand how deeply the loss of a pet can affect you.  The bond between a person and their dog is like no other.  Holly died last April and yet the pain of losing her still hurts as much as the very first day without her.

That's probably why I freaked out so much when I found an empty Advil Liquigel capsule on our bedroom floor on Saturday night.  There was a puncture mark on it and all of the liquid was drained out.  I instantly got on the internet and started crazily googling "dog ate Advil".  Website after website came up, all with the same horrible word: LETHAL.  Naturally, I flipped my shit.  "Jon, JON!!  Lola's DYING!!"  Let me tell you, I am totally the girl you want around in a crisis because hell to the no, I never overreact.  Uh huh. 

The cool and levelheaded engineer in Jon decided to investigate a little farther.  "Are you sure she ate it, Katie?"  "Yes, JON, there's a freaking tooth mark in it!!"  "Show me where you found it."  Meanwhile, in case you're wondering, Lola is acting just as normal as can be, sitting on the couch staring at our abandoned PF Chang's on the coffee table.  So I led Jon to the spot of the Advil consumption, and there it was, a small, wet spot on our carpet.  I rubbed my finger on it and it was sticky.  Then I (eww!) tasted it to ensure that it was Advil.  And indeed it was.  Thank god we have a dog with the finest palate on the planet because she will not eat anything unless it's a) off our plate or b) a Tiny T Bonz Sizzling Steak treat.  She must have had one taste of the icky medicine and quickly abandoned it on the floor, leaving the liquid to drain out.  PHEW!!

Crisis averted and lesson learned: The next time you are hungover and popping Advils in the wee morning hours, make sure every pill actually makes it in your mouth and not on the floor! 

(In all seriousness though, please keep your pills out of your pet's reach...I would have been devastated if something had happened to Lola.)