It's beginning to look a lot little like Christmas

Although I love Christmas, I haven't gotten into decorating my place. Last year was my first Christmas in my home and I didn't put up a thing.

This year, I fell in love with the teeny tiny Christmas trees that I saw at Target but held back. And then, whadya know?! Target also sells minature ornaments, mini lights and even a itty bitty glowing star! I love Target.

So here is the very first Christmas tree I've bought on my own-

Cute, isn't it?? And I bet you wondered where Piko's been. Or not.
Sister called me and told me she couldn't believe I let Piko on the table! But I couldn't help showing off my mini tree and mini puppy!
Excluding presents, this is the extent of my decorations. But I guarantee it even smells like Christmas in my house. The mini tree is mighty fragrant and I have an apple cinnamon plug-in ;)

Love, thanks, and a load of turkey

I adore the holidays. Specifically, Christmas. And Thanksgiving is a great kick off holiday to the big shin-dig that is Christmas!
What's great about Thanksgiving, though, is there are no strings attached. Giving and receiving is AWESOME but Thanksgiving is all about being with loved ones, eating a HUGE meal, watching the Macy's parade and then catching some football. Holy smokes, could you ask for anything else???

LULU GIVES THANKS

1. Parents: My family is the best. I love them to pieces. My parents are so generous and loving. They have a thankless job, being a parent and all, and they would give everything to make sure their kids are safe and happy. I love them soo much. Plus, they are so teeny tiny and cute!

2. Sister: She is my best friend. She was my third parent growing up - she was the hip one - but now I get a best friend out of the deal. What a steal!!! She is so kind and generous (she must have good parents) and funny. She is talented, stylish (did I ever tell you she made me a color chart when I was little because the outfit I put together hurt her eyes?) and just simply divine.

3. Brother: He is our earth angel. If anyone has a non-stop flight to Heaven, it's him. He teaches me patience and compassion.

4. The Man: My other best friend. He knows me so well. He is a dork trapped in the body of a hottie! How can I not love that he is beautiful inside and out yet is humble, bashful and shy? He is truly a good man who loves me. Plus, he be my puppy's daddy. Word.

5. My friends: I'm not very good at keeping friends. It's a lot of effort to stay in touch and before I know it, I haven't talked to a friend in almost a year! Plus, if I am wronged, it's very hard for me to let a person back into my life. So the friends I do have really are super stars. They are kind, funny, supportive, smart, generous and all-around wonderful.

6. Power Yoga: I haven't been to class since April because of my new job schedule. But I'm going to today!!!! I can't possibly convey how excited I am. Just know I am beside myself because I love my nazi yoga teacher (by that I mean like "soup nazi" and not "genocide leader") I am so happy today!

And I'm thankful for a lot more (like my wild Pekatese puppy) but that's the jist of it. So, because I am a pretty cool gal, and I mean, pret-ty cool, I am giving y'all a little gift:

Go to www.sephora.com and shop your little heart out. Buy about $100 worth of stuff. Then get 20% off your Sephora purchase when you enter promotional code "FF2006" at checkout. You should also have free shipping because you spend over $75. And you get the dope discount. Seriously.

Told you I was a pretty cool gal. Happy Thanksgiving!!!! xoxoxo

SF Hula Girl is BACK!

Me and my old hula sisters hammin' it up at a dance festival in 2003.

Hula was something I wanted to learn back in 1996. It wasn't until my then-boyfriend and I broke up in 2000 that I really did something about it and joined a San Francisco halau. Five years later, I stopped dancing because I never made the time to practice and to do anything well, you've got to practice! I had also moved back to the East Bay and had to deal with a round-trip two hour commute just to go to class.

It's been nearly two years since I left. And lately I've been feeling like I need an outlet. Something to look forward to other than going home after work! I've been wanting to check out a local halau that my former teacher worked with for a performance. I attended my first class last night. So far so good - it is less than 1o minutes away from my house! The teacher seems cool, if not unorthodox (we were doing hula warm ups to an old Michael Jackson song. Never done that before.) Unlike my first halau where there were over 100 students learning in a school cafeteria, this class had less than 10 people in a dance studio. I like it, even though I feel like such a beginner! I may need to sign up for private lessons just so I can catch up.Wish me luck!

Here's to healthy outlets, *raising a glass* cheers!

I adore Tina Fey!

Tina Fey: Paris Hilton Is A “Piece of Sh-t”

Tina Fey, the former head writer of Saturday Night Live, and creator and star of the new NBC show, 30 Rock, dropped by Howard Stern’s Sirius Satellite radio show on Wednesday to share her thoughts on various past SNL guest hosts.
She revealed that Paris Hilton asked the writers to make a skit in which she could play Jessica Simpson "because I hate her…she's fat.” Fey also claims that Paris was so self-centered that staffers had a bet going on as to whether she would ask anyone something personal (like "How are you?") during her week on-set. They only lost when she asked, “Is Maya Rudolph Italian?" (she's half Black, half Jewish). In excerpts from the interview below, Tina dishes more on Paris, Matthew McConaughey (See: personal hygiene, lack thereof) and losing her own virginity. On her virginity:TF: I was 24 when I lost my virginity. I was still a virgin when I met my husband.
HS: Why do you think that is, you were the hot girl on SNL?
TF: I don't know, I was a drama major, so it was me and 100 gay guys, so maybe that was my problem.
On Paris Hilton:HS: What is Paris Hilton like?
TF: She's a piece of sh-t. The people at SNL were like maybe she'll be fun, maybe she won't take herself so seriously. She takes herself so seriously! She's unbelievably dumb and so proud of how dumb she is. She looks like a tranny up close.
HS: Was she bad on SNL, was she hard to deal with?
TF: She was awful. People never come in and say "I'm not doing that." So, this guy Jim Downey wrote a really really funny sketch, it was supposed to be Lorne Michaels just finding out that she had a sex tape and telling her she couldn't host the show because SNL has standards... So she was like "I'm not doing it!" and refused to come out of her dressing room. Also, you would walk down the hall and find what just looked like nasty wads of Barbie hair on the stairs... Her hair is like a Fraggle.
HS: Did she give you ideas for sketches?
TF: Yeah, she wanted to make fun of all the girls she hates. She was like "I want to play Jessica Simpson, I hate her." She would come in the room and say "you should do a show about Jessica Simpson because she's fat."
HS: What was the bet you guys had going about her?
TF: The cast had a bet if she would ask anyone on the cast anything about themselves, you know like how are you? where are you from? anything. I think Seth Meyers won because at one point, she asked him if Maya Rudolf was Italian.

Source: http://www.usmagazine.com/node/3875

Umm, I HAD to share

These are comics that were forwarded to me.
Foul. But funny.
But oh so foul.

My favorite is the naked comic.

I need an outlet

That's what The Man tells me.
I've been frustrated with certain aspects of work and The Man says I'm working myself up even more because I don't have hula or yoga. He suggests I go back to hula.
It's a little tricky right now seeing that I need to persuade my parents to puppysit a while longer (to which they probably wouldn't say no, I just don't want them to feel like I'm taking advantage of their kindness.) But he's probably right. I feel like a blob because I am NOT active at all. I don't feel an ounce of attractiveness and I'm so tired that I can only mildly care.
I've been thinking about going back to hula for quite some time and now that I'm putting it out there ("there" being my blog) so I will have to have some accountability to go through with it.
Well, OK then!

All cleaned up (no bow!)

Fur, teeth and claws

I can't do anything about the teeth but my pup looks like an little, old Ewok with a buttload of fur. Foreel. See?

We purchased clippers and claw cutters (or whatever the contraption is called.) Her claws are too long and the fur on her face needs to be trimmed. As well as her rear end.
But I don't want her to have a baboon-butt so it will just be a trim and not a shave. (This ensures no traces of "eliminination" stay on its owner. Ick.) Anyway, we tried to trim her fur and, after some denial, we realized we made absolutely no impact. The thought of us trying to trim her claws is just too scary right now because if you cut them too short, so I'm told, it really really hurts. I don't need that kind of guilt. I've decided that Piko will be groomed by a professional because I'm chicken. So we're going this Saturday to get my girl cleaned up. And no, there will be no bows. NO bows.

As for me, three of my coworkers were/are sick. Two of them powered through and just came to work under the weather. The third colleague pretty much said, "F-that, I'm sick" which is kind of how I feel right now. I'm not congested but I have a sore throat, my temples and the back of my head hurt. I downed a few Emergen-C packets but I didn't drink as much as I have before (when I know people around me are sick I usually drink two packets 3x a day) and guess what? Half ass doesn't work! So I may be going home mid-day. I've already made appointments with clients this morning and would hate to cancel.

Remember when you were in school and you stayed home sick? Better yet, remember when you were in college and you would stay in bed if you didn't feel good? That's one of the things I miss. Sans midterms, papers and basically any studying, of course.

Got my vote on

Last year, I was hoppin' mad at myself because I didn't realize that I would be out of state during the elections.
This year, I was READY. But I guess I still can't beat stupidity:
* Ah-nold Schwarzenegger will be governor for a second term
* No on the cigarette tax
* No on oil tax and alternative energy incentives
Sweet mary mother of pearl. What the hell?! What's next - being allowed to marry our first cousins?
But on the upside:
* No on the abortion waiting period and parental notification
(I don't pretend to be politically savvy - why does this keep popping up? Wasn't it voted out last year?)
So while I'm not ecstatic, I'm happy that ONE issue I feel strongly about was voted down. Again. And just to stick it to the man (not mine but the other), let's all make a donation to Planned Parenthood and support this organization for all the good they do in our communities. Planned Parenthood doesn't just make sure every woman has the right to choose and exercise her options. It also provides low cost medical care to everyone. Yes, PP helped me out when I had NO medical coverage when I was a poor student and when I worked at a sweatshop television station.
OK, I'm stepping off my soapbox and putting it away.

Sister is brilliant!

The Man and I are going to have a dinner and a movie date night this Friday. We will see Borat.
We haven't gone on date night for a very, very, very long time. We usually watch TV and then go to sleep.
I'm hoping my parents will puppysit so that Piko will get to keep her schedule on falling asleep at 9:00pm and waking up at 5:00am which happens to be my mom's schedule when she works. And, 'lo and behold, AL's working on Saturday. Whoohooo!!
I hear Borat is freakin' hilarous. I am very excited to have a date night.

I should probably make sure my parents can watch her.

I used to have a kitchen ...

Well, not that I cooked much. But still. I used to have a kitchen. Now I have a puppy play area which happens to have a fridge and a sink.
Yes, those are real baby gates. Which, by the way, the more expensive one on the left is great because it swings open. I am concerned, though, about the expanding and retracting feature and how you can't lock it into place. All I could keep thinking was, "Tiny fingers could get smashed! Tiny PAWS could get smashed!" But it's very handy. Anyhow ...
A friend who owns a puppy asked me how life has been for me/us. What's funny is before I had Piko, I probably wouldn't have thought to ask that question to a couple. I mean, I know it's serious business to have a pet, believe me. This is why I haven't had one in nearly seven years. I knew I couldn't handle or wanted the responsibility! But, even knowing all of this, I have to say it's so much different having a dog as an adult in comparison to when I was a kid. (And believe me, I keep thinking, "My poor childhood dog!")
I'm not going to lie. It has been taxing on The Man and me. We don't necessarily fight about her but our nerves are shot from lack of sleep, extensive cleaning and constant supervision of a furry little body. There is very little down time anymore! I didn't notice it until today, and The Man also pointed out, that we aren't as affectionate or even talkative because it's all about her. But there are upsides, too. Even though The Man wanted a big ol' Doberman (I will repeat, I just don't see me cuddling up to a Doberman,) he has really taken to Piko. He has a hard time disciplining her and he will stay in an uncomfortable position just because she fell asleep on his lap. He's also been kind to me and my needs. Knowing how uncleanliness gets to me, he researched extensively and bought us a top-of-the-line SteamVac so we could thoroughly clean Piko's messes. Over and over again. He's also the best at detecting an "elimination" in progress. I'd say he has a 80% success ratio in getting Piko to the peepee pad before she leaks or pops a fatty. (Hey, you think that's gross, try SMELLING it and, all the while, praising her for getting it on the pad!) He's also the one who installed the baby gates and a doggie door that we will be introducing to her soon.
Despite the lack of sleep, adult conversation and social life, I really am glad we have Piko. She really IS great practice for a real one. I know, a puppy isn't the same but what a remarkable simulation ;) Oh, and as mentioned, I have start a Dogster.com page for her so there will be a healthy outlet for my obsession with taking pictures of Piko without subjecting all you lovely people.

The reason why I went to bed at 8:00pm on a Friday night

A Friday night!
Being in a four year relationship, I am no stranger to staying home and making Friday a Blockbuster/ Must See TV night. But to go to bed at 8:00pm?! Clearly, waking up at 12:00am and 3:00am finally caught up with me.

As you can see, Piko isn't much bigger than my slipper and, while I'm not ittybitty, my feet are on the small side. Thus, Piko is quite tiny. But she sure dishes it out! I won't gross you out and take a picture of her "elimination" (that's what the book calls her booboo and pee) but her #2 elimination has gotten much bigger from when she first came home. And stinkier. Boy, is it stinky.
Today, she got her first hair cut. Because the Fu Man cut wasn't working for us anymore. Not only was it not aesthetically pleasing but, when she would drink water, she would have enough water on her chin to soak her kennel blanket. So here is the now three-month-old Piko:

The Man fluffed her up to prove that Piko can have a straight-haired afro. Like her Mama Lu.

You're probably thinking, "Doesn't she have anything, anything else to write about?" No, I don't. I take care of Piko, go to work, take care of Piko and sleep. I would love to have something else to write about but I don't. So I continue to type about my puppy.

Completely smitten

Piko now weights four lbs, 10 ounces. She survived her first vet appointment and her first thermometer up her private-puppy-part.

She is named Piko for two reasons. One, she is half Pekingese so her name sounds like Pee-koh. The reason why her name is spelled P-i-k-o is because she had an umbilical cord repair and has a small scar. "Piko" means navel or belly button in Hawaiian. So there you have it - Piko.

I am SUPER tired. She and I have been getting up at midnight, 3am and then 5am. I'm hoping to eliminate midnight tonight. We shall see.

Although I am not going to write much in this entry, I've filled it with pictures of Piko. Here are some pictures that will give you a better perspective of her size and personality:

With her snazzy Target reindeer.

Ready to kick the reindeer's butt.

Piko displaying her determination to take the "Alpha Dog" title from her Daddy.