VMFA Visit

My birthday week kicked off last weekend with my parents coming in to town.  After shopping, we met up with Mike to eat and watch the UR game (you know, one of the ones they won BEFORE they got slaughtered).  A grand time was had by all, but unfortunately, I forgot my camera at home.

On Wednesday, I celebrated raucously by staying at work an extra hour late (shockingly, the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission didn't extend their deadline in light of my birthday) and then rushing to a Junior League meeting.  Luckily, Mike and I both finished out the day about 9pm and though he offered to get some real dinner for me, I requested a trip to McDonald's instead. It was EXACTLY what i wanted. YUM.  We're planning on going on Biggest Losers: Couples Edition in a few seasons.   I think we would be eliminated pretty quickly because I would have a BIG problem with Jillian Michaels telling me what to do, and I think Mike would be a little too eager to do whatever she said.

ANYWAYS:
On Thursday, we actually celebrated by going to dinner and seeing the Picasso exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, which is conveniently located about a mile away from the apartment.

 The exhibit is on loan from a Paris museum while it is being renovated, and consists of Picasso's private works.  It's a pretty big collection, and was really fun to see.  We met up with another couple, Will and Julia, for some wine and some jazz beforehand at the museum cafe. Sooooo cultural.

Dorkasaurus 1 & Dorkasaurus 2

The museum "closes" at 9pm on Thursdays, but we started going through the exhibit at about 8:30.  We thought we were being pretty cool because the security guard told us we were the last ones to go through, and he was locking the doors behind us as we went through each room towards the end.  While we were in the gift shop, we could tell that people were still going through, and the same guard came back through and told us he was wrong and people were still in there.  Someone was a little too eager to go home.

I'm not sure a Picasso exhibit is where you would want to spend a "night in the museum".  I would not want to see some of those things  come to life.

Milly participated by singing me a rousing "Happy Birthday", trying to lick my cake, and trying to gracefully deal with someone else getting a wee bit of attention. It's a hard knock life pup. 

Happy Birthday Milly!

Saturday was Milly's second birthday! We didn't have a party this year like we did for her first birthday:

Her first birthday would have been pretty hard to top.  But I still tried to do a few things to make the day special:

We started off when some breakfast topped with some honey nut cheerios, one of Milly's favorite human treats. 

Then we went for a walk and sniffed out some squirrels. 

She also spent a little time checking things out from her favorite lookout spot. 

She also got a special birthday pup treat. 

My parents got her a car seat booster so she could have a comfy seat and be able to see out of the window. She didn't want to cooperate taking the picture-I'll have to work on getting a better one. 

Thanks She-She and Mr. Gary!

Unfortunately, Mike was driving back from TN for a mediation competition on her birthday, but they spent lots of quality time together on Sunday, which I think Milly liked better than all of her special birthday treats.  

I have loved having you in my life the last (almost) 2 years Milly.  We look forward to LOTS more birthdays with you.  

To the Cloud!

I actually think those Windows 7 commercials are kind of silly, but I guess it is doing it's job if I remember the tagline.

As you may remember, Milly got a bigger and better crate to stay in during the day.  She had a habit of trying to lay on top of it, so while I was cleaning I decided to put her dog bed (that was in a corner with a bunch of stuff on top of it) on top of her crate. She loves it! We are trying to teach her to know that it's called "the cloud".  I'm not sure she's caught on yet, but she does know that it's her "bed".   She jumps in it when she thinks she may go in her crate soon, and hopes that if she jumps on her cloud maybe she will look cute enough that we won't put her in.
In case you are wondering, I did consider putting the bed IN her crate, but it took up too much space and would have been awkward.  Plus, it would have impeded on Milly's special afghan.

It's also her new favorite place to watch TV. 

The Final Countdown

I've kind of debated blogging about this, because it ranks pretty high on the dorkasaurus scale, but then I decided that anyone who is reading this knows I'm a pretty big dork anyways, so what the heck.

Recently, I had told Mike a story about how I used to make paper chains to countdown to Christmas, my birthday, etc.  I had to explain that you cut strips of construction paper and tape or staple them into interlocking loops, then take one off each day.  I'm not sure if this is still popular, but it was all the rage in the 90's.

Shortly after, I was feeling especially crafty one night and had some construction paper lying around and just couldn't help myself.  I constructed my most massive paper chain to date: 150 days until the VA Bar.  For Mike it's a daily reminder of how close his test is getting as a motivational tool; for me it just means one thing: the chain to freedom.

Each month has it's one color.
February=Pink
March=Yellow
April=Green
May=Orange
June=Blue
July=BLACK aka the dark storm cloud that will descend upon us as the test grows near, HOWEVER the numbers/dates are in SILVER sharpie aka the silver lining that the test is almost over. Aren't I CLEVER??

Here's a panoramic view of the chain that goes around the apartment.  It's pretty special.  Note the copious school supplies, and the epic Bruce Springsteen Born to Run poster that Milly occasionally decides to take notice and growl at.

Only 139 more days to go...but who's counting!

Major Writing's Block

Yes, I know that I have committed the ultimate sin.  I have completely neglected this blog.  I've been in a pretty major winter funk, and just didn't feel like I had anything worthy of posting.  Go to work every day, eat dinner and watch DVR, read my nook, sleep, repeat.

I'm beginning to see the light, however.  March is here and that means BIRTHDAY MONTH for Milly and me, and the calendar beginning of spring.  We're getting at least a few hours of spring-like weather several days out of the week, and sometimes it's even been warm enough to keep walking with Milly even after she's taken care of business.  Her tail is even growing back!

Most importantly, today marks two months until Mike graduates!

Things are lookin up around here!