Want Me Wednesday

It's baaaa-aaack!! After a long hiatus Want-Me-Wednesday is hitting the blog once again. This week I'm featuring the little pound pug I mentioned in my last entry. She's named Clara and she is being fostered by the wonderful people from Kentuckiana Pug Rescue.





Here's what her foster mom had to say about her:

Clara (# 366) came to KPR after two angels in Tennessee saved her from euthanasia. This sweet pug is estimated to be 10-12 years old. Despite falling into neglect, she is calm, fully house broken, loves to be held and knows all the rules. Clara has sowed her wild oats and thinks of herself as "semi-retired." She enjoys outside walks on the leash and even a short run, but fetch or outside play, not so much. Clara weighs 13.2 lbs. and the vet says this is just right for her. Clara is the lone pet in her foster household, but is curious and calm with her doggie cousins and neighbors. She spends nights in her cozy crate next to her foster Mom's bed and prefers a full 10 hours of beauty sleep. Clara has an audible heart murmur from a leaky heart valve. At some point in the future she may need medication for this. Right now she has no symptoms and doesn't worry about it at all. Clara is one wonderful pug.

Adoption Donation - $225

I can personally vauche for this little girl being a sweetheart. Won't you give her the forever home she deserves for Christmas?

Where have I been??

It seems like it's been forever since I updated my blog but I have a really good reason for being MIA. I've been getting things done!! Ever since I got back from China I couldn't shake this feeling of being behind, but thankfully over the long weekend I was able to get some stuff done. And from the list maker in me, here's what I've been away from the computer doing:



1) Breaking out a little old pug from the local pound. The photo I'm showing is the one in her petfinder add when she was still in the shelter and not doing so well. I got an updated photo of her earlier today, but I'll have to post it later since it's on my work computer.



2) Finishing up the Christmas Cards I made and sold for SEPRA.



3) Finishing up my LOs for the Scrapbook Warehouse DT contest. Wish me luck, I should know by Dec 7th if I made it.

4) Finished up my Christmas shopping, YAY!

5) Running in this year's Boulevard Bolt on Thanksgiving Morning.

6) Painting my living room and kitchen. I can't really take any credit for this though, all the manual labor was done by John. I did pick the colors though, LOL. I love the way it turned out and will try and get some pics up soon.

7) Addressed and sent out all of my own Christmas cards (keep an eye on your mailbox!).



8)Put up the tree and decorated the house for Christmas. I think one of my favorite things about Christmas is ornaments. I just love rediscovering my favorites year after year.

And last but not least, we subjected the babies to a little Christmas photo shoot tonight. They were less than cooperative but here are a few that turned out.

Dora



Genie



Kinley



And Einstein flat refused to have his photo taken until the rest of the hair around his eye grows back in. Hopefully next week, his follow-up vet visit for the mange is Saturday.

Have a great week everybody. I hope to get back to my regularly scheduled "Want Me Wednesday" this week so stay tuned!!

Lazy Sundays

I LOVE lazy Sundays. Especially after a long hard week at work. In keeping with my lazy theme today I'm going to be lazy and only tell you a few things.

(1) I finally finished the Canvas for the class I'll be teaching at Paper Candy! This will be my first class ever and I'm more than a little nervous about it (eeeek!). I'm not sure what weekend the class will be yet, but we've estimated the cost to be about $20. I hope some of you local gals will take it so I have some friendly faces in the class. Here's what we'll be making:



(2) I bought the cutest PINK Christmas tree today for my scrapbook room. I had to take it out of the box to make sure it worked, but I'll hold off on decorating it until the day after thanksgiving.



Have a great week everybody!!

China - Day 7

Our last day in China :( We decided to take it easy and just take in a few sites in the morning and then shop in the afternoon. On our way to the ATM in the morning, we found the most wonderful used bookstore. I was able to pick up all sorts of calligraphy books, vintage postcards, and other items that will be handy in scrapping my trip. After we dropped our purchases back off at the hostel, we caught a taxi and headed for Tiananmen Square. The last item on my list of "must sees" was Chairman Mao's body which lies preserved in a crystal coffin. We arrived at the building and found not only was there a 2 hour+ wait, but you were allowed to take nothing in with you and you needed a passport to enter. Tiffany and Sarah didn't bring their passport so we decided to just skip it. It was disappointing, but not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. Hopefully I'll make it back to Beijing one day and I can do this then.

From Tiananmen, we decided to walk through the Houtongs over the BeiHai park. There is a temple on top of a hill in the park that provides a view of the entire Forbidden City. The steps up to the temple were quite challenging considering how sore we were from the Great Wall yesterday, but we made it to the top. The view was less than great as it was a hazy, polluted day. It wasn't a wasted journey to the top, however, because there was a gorgeous Buddha at inside the temple and just outside the temple was a place to pose for photos while wearing ancient imperial clothing. We had seen these stands several places before and we decided it would be fun to do. We inquired about the cost (it was incredibly cheap!), paid our fee, and got dressed. I swear to God, every eye at that temple was on us, and most of them were taking pictures LOL. It was as though aliens had landed and were there at the temple. It was priceless.

A Canal at the entrance to the Houtongs


The temple atop the hill in BeiHai park


Buddha in the temple


Tiffany's headress hurt her head, LOL.





Tiffany noticing that all eyes were on us.




After we finished with our pictures, we took a stroll around BeiHai Lake. We took some photos of the famous white pagoda and then went back to the hostel for lunch and a nap. After we got all rested up we took a taxi over to the silk market and a few other shopping areas we had heard about. We had the best time haggling and shopping. I wish we had something like that here! It is like an adrenaline rush when you get something for dirt cheap, LOL!!

The White Pagoda




The spoils of our shopping


After shopping we decided to go to dinner back at HoHai Lake, the area we had been to a few nights earlier. We found a nice bar and hung out, chatted, and laughed about our adventures for the rest of the evening. It was a fantastic end to a fantastic trip.

China - Day 6

FINALLY I am getting day 6 up on the blog!! Between getting ready for Halloween/my mom's birthday and blogger problems this whole China trip has taken forever to tell!!!

We had heard from some people in our hostel that the best way to see the Great Wall was to ride the subway to the DongZhiMen station and hire a minibus. Navigating the subway was surprisingly simple, but when we exited the station there weren't any minibuses to be found. We walked around in circles for quite some time and were just about to give up when destiny in the from of Mr Ye came up behind us. We bargained with him for some time and finally agreed upon a price. Mr Ye was so pleased he could hardly contain himself. This was our confirmation that we paid too much. It equated to about $20 American dollars and he was the only driver we found so it was ok with us.



The ride up to the wall took about 2 1/2 hours and was very similar to a Shanghai taxi ride. Apparently it is ok to drive on the wrong side of the road to pass people - anytime including when you are going up a hill and can't tell if anything is coming from the other direction. Another interesting driving tip from the Chinese is that if the light is red, you should turn right, immediately u-turn, and then turn right again thus avoiding ever actually stopping. Well, that or just outright run the light. Really I think the motto for driving is don't stop!! There was one highlight on the way - we had purchased some snacks before we got on the subway to eat along the way. This one was my favorite purely for the name. I have to admit I was a little disappointed when I opened the bag and didn't find chicken on the inside, but the chicken flavored puffs were pretty tasty.





Finally we reached the wall. We purchased a ticket (this will become a theme) for 50 yuan and walked over to a lift that resembled a ski lift to get us to the top where we purchased a lift ticket for 30 yuan. Only two people would fit in each lift and I rode up with Carrissa.



Once at the top we were met with the most amazing view of the wall and the countryside. It was breathtaking. The photos just do not do it justice. It was an amazing experience and one I will remember for the rest of my life.































We made a 10k journey along the wall to the a city called Simatai. During this LONG journey up large hills and down steep inclines, we learned some very valuable lessons.

1) The Great Wall is home to a ton (and I mean a ton) of beetles. They don't sting or bite but they are quite annoying.



2) When tiny Mongolian women follow you for miles on the wall it is NOT because they think your hair is "piao liang" (beautiful) even though that is what they will tell you. They are actually interested in selling you water bottles that are used and have been refilled with water. Yuck!! And Should you refuse the typhoid water the next offer is post cards, books, and t-shirts in that order. When you refuse and try to run away they will cuss you in Chinese. On a side note, tiny Mongolian women do not have to pay the additional 20 yuan charged to the white girls for yet another ticket 1/2 way along the wall.





3) 10k on a hilly (read: Steep-ass) wall is not the equivalent of 10k on a nice flat surface. Even if you are normally in pretty good shape, the wall is no joke.

Tiffany and I were really struggling towards the end. We resorted to chanting our trip motto "I know I can!!!" up the final set of stairs. Instead of walking all the way back down to the parking lot we decided to take a "shortcut" - the zipcord ride over lake to get back down (35 yuan). When we got to the bottom of the zipcord we discovered there was yet another boat we had to take to get back to the parking lot (20 yuan).

On the boat


Our shortcut ended up taking an extra hour and put us late getting back to Mr Ye. Thankfully we found him and got loaded up and settled in for the long trip home. Not more than 5 minutes after we started on the journey home, Mr Ye saw some people walking on the side of the road and stopped to try and sell them a ride home. He wanted us to squish together and fit 4 more people in that tiny minibus!! We decided it would be best to pretend we didn't understand what he was trying to say, LOL. This went on and on for about 10 minutes. Finally a gave him some more money and told him "GO!!!" and we got back on the road. If it is possible I think the ride home was even worse than the ride there. It was dark outside so that made the "creative driving" even more frightening and there was a large traffic jam.

There were a few eventful moments on our trip home. At one point we were going through an intersection and there were two men who had wrecked punching and kicking each other. It seems when you have an accident in China it's normal to punch the other guy rather than call the police. Then later Tiffany decided to talk to Mr Ye about taking us all the way back to the hostel for some extra cash rather than dropping us back off at the subway station. After she convinced him and they agreed upon a price, she got ready to sit back down and totally missed the seat!! Even Mr Ye cracked up at her fall!!

The wall was amazing and this was by far my favorite day of the entire trip!!