Lulu loves weekends.

To make up for her lonely weekdays at home, we try our best to keep Lulu busy with activities and attention during the weekend. On Saturday, we took her to the dog park to run around before her hair appointment at noon. It was kind of funny because we came during a Boston Terrier meet and there were maybe 20 hyper Boston's just running around, tearing up the lil doggie area. Lulu got tired of it pretty fast, but I still think she's doing sooo much better with other dogs now. She'll sniff other butts and occasionally chase a dog about 15 feet before returning to us.

Then we took her to the Pet Salon to get a cocker cut. Steve's really curious to see what it looks like and I warned him that she'll look *fat* but we did it anyway. It's a good thing they didn't shave her entire head (Lulu has a tiny head) so she still looks proportionate.



The funny thing is she must look a TON cuter now because she got so much attention everywhere we went. We brought her to Century City and everyone stopped to play with her. Even weirder thing- she's actually more friendly now so she'll approach people and let them pet her! I guess these weekends out are a good thing for her. :)

Yay for a sunny weekend!

Nothing like a sunny weekend to get you outdoors!

Well, yesterday we started off the weekend by driving out to Santa Monica to check out some apartments for rent. It started off idealistically enough -- mildly affordable, close enough to the beach for a morning jog or a weekend bike ride down to Venice. As we strolled into the 6th Street/Montana Ave area we soaked in the grassy surroundings... perfect for Lulu walks! Then came the actual open houses... pass.

Apartments there are pretty old, and small. Not unlike my area now but for some reason the actual units felt very cramped. Small kitchen, small bedrooms and worse of all, barely any closet space. Even though the units we looked at were "upgraded" with "hardwood floors" and "new appliances", everything felt so old and stale. So we quickly gave up and took Lulu to the dog park instead.

Lulu has been a lot better at the dog park lately! We left her bark collar on as she was settling in... I think this quickly gets her out of the barking/defensive mode and she starts being a little more relaxed and observant. After about 20 minutes, we were able to take off her collar and she would wander around and actually sniffed other dogs' butts. She often stayed to her own type though -- beige and fluffy or at least part cocker. She even chased a dog or two on occasion.

Today we woke up to the same sunny goodness. I had a brunch/shopping date with Elaine. We drove up to Los Feliz (apparently pronounced Fee-Liss, not Fuh-leez like I've been saying it) and had brunch at the Alcove, a really cute bungalow/cafe filled with quirky patio tables.



I had the Crab Cake Eggs Benedict... yum! It didn't come on a biscuit or any type of bread (bummer) but the crab cake was bready enough to soak up the runny egg. Elaine had eggs and pancakes smothered with strawberries and bananas and a side of chicken sausage, probably one of the best-tasting (and hearty, about 7" long) chicken sausages I've ever had.

After the meal, we headed to the Rebecca Minkoff Sample Sale down the street. It was supposed to start at 12PM and we got there at 11:55AM. It looked pretty dead so we were pretty excited. But when we went in, there wasn't too much stuff left--just a bunch of girls hoarding the purses and chatting on their cell phones asking their friends which color they should get. It was pretty annoying. Turns out the line in the morning was so long that they opened 2 hours early to get rid of the crowd. I still scored something though. :D

After the sample sale we went back to my place to check out the open apartments. There is a 2-bedroom and 3-bedroom available for rent. The 2 bed/2 bath is pretty roomy but has bedrooms and closet space smaller than mine. The rent is $2265. The 3-bedroom has 2 good-sized rooms, one tiny, a huge living room and an awesome patio for $2,795 a month. We're considering moving into the 2 bedroom with Elaine. Apartments are so expensive these days!!!

After checking out the apartments, the three of us went to Nijiya to do some grocery shopping for the week. After dropping Elaine off, Steve, Lulu and I dropped by the Barrington Dog Park again. Hey, repetition is the best way to train right? She did pretty good today. She was pretty social in the small dog area, often leaving us for 15 seconds at a time to sniff another dog. We even took her for a stroll in the big dog area and you can tell she was braver than usual. Yay! We're going to try to bring her out more often to reverse this psychotic anxiety she's been having at home lately. :)

So that wraps up my weekend!

I've unlocked!

*gasp*

Resoluteness

A list of resolutions are in order, I suppose.

Let's start off with the usual...
1) Maintain a regular workout schedule of at least 3 times a week.
2) Eat less.
3) Spend less.

And now, random things I'd like to achieve this year.
- Try out all the new cupcake bakeries like Vanilla, Buttercake, Crumbs and Yummy Cupcakes. (This will not be in violation of resolution #2 above if I limit myself to 2 cupcakes a day, per visit.)
- Use up my 6 class credit at Bar Method
- Take down the Christmas tree.
- Finish knitting all of the projects I've started.
- Move to a less painful rent-area.
- Unlock all the songs on Rockband on guitar, medium.
- Perfect a home recipe for Pad See Ew.
- Go to a museum/exhibit at least 5 times throughout the year.
- Go to Disneyland.
- 1 hr tandem massage.
- Road trip to Hearst Castle/SF.
- Finally finish the CT redesign and write at least 3 posts a week.
- Learn conversational Chinese (Mandarin).

Okay, now I'm being overzealous. I'll stop here.

Happy New Year

And a happy new year to all that is living
To all that is gentle, young, and forgiving
Raise your glass and we'll have a cheer
My dear acquaintance, a happy new year