Movie Weekend

This weekend was one of those mind-buzzing weekends. The kind where you walk into rooms, forgot why, walk out, have a flash of brilliance and remember, walk back into the room... and then promptly forget again and do something else entirely.

PLEASE TELL ME I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS DAYS LIKE THAT.

Since my brain wasn't working it was the PERFECT weekend to zone out and watch movies. I am so out of touch when it comes to what is out and what was winning at the Oscars... last night was the first time I had heard of the The Hurt Locker. Where have I been exactly?

John & I watched:

1. The Informant! with Matt Damon- he rocked that fuzzy little mustache like nobody's business;
2. Avatar- I'll admit, a part of me kind of wanted to be all, "Meh" about the whole thing but I TOTALLY got sucked in AND I CRIED. No lie. I'm a sucker for a great big humongous blue head;
3. The Corporation- Umm. Please go watch this movie. It's a documentary so right off the bat you'll be smarter for having gone to the movie store and PASSED OVER the first Matthew McConaughey ab fest flick you could get your grimey paws on... but more importantly it's a great movie. You'll have some ohmygod moments. It'll be good for you.

Here are my dogs waiting patiently for me at the movie store. They hadn't heard of The Hurt Locker either.

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Divine Days of Awww

John and I went away for a couple of days. I'll write a more complete post about the Divine Days of Awww, but in the meantime: Oh. My. God. Heaven. We slept. We ate. We walked around.... we slept, we ate... and after all of that we looked around and sighed:

Well, well. This is what the world looks like after a whole entire 8 hours of sleep, fresh salty air swirling around our care-free heads and a belly stuffed full of scrumptuous food SOMEONE ELSE MADE.

Did you catch that? I showed up in a room and deLICious food magically appeared on a plate before me. It was culinary wonderfulness that appeared out of thin air and, get this: THE DISHES CLEANED THEMSELVES. Love it. LOVE. It. I NEED ME ONE OF THOSE FAIRIES.

It was a pup-free few days, and although we missed them... I think they missed us for about as long as it took them to high-tail it around the corner to their own personal version of canine heaven: Doggie Daycare.

Here we have Mickey at the gate. As you can see, he is looking decidedly unsure. And it looks like his tail is broken (I can ASSURE you his tail is perfectly UN-broken. We just happen to have a dog with a red-headed mustache attached to his butt):

And Kayloo is PUMPED. She is ready to ROCK this daycare, get all up in some fancy chihuahua's grill and flop all around in a steaming pile of crap or two. Good times.

So, the dogs got to slop around in fields of mud all day long and we got to... not have a schedule.

Good deal!

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Your Mother Is Not Impressed, Playgirl

So, this whole thing about Mike Vick posing for Playgirl with the proceeds going to PETA (read the Life & Style article). In case you haven't heard: Playgirl offered to donate $1 million to PETA if Michael Vick poses for it's magazine.

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?

This is the worst idea ever:

1. Guy tortures animals (he started his dogfighting operation, "Bad Newz Kennels" in 2001)
2. Guy is sentenced to 23 months followed by 2 months in home confinement
3. Guy strips for a skin mag
4. Skin mag makes a bunch of money

I'm going to throw this out there again: ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?

Yeah sure, they say they are going to give a donation to PETA, but that does not make any of this okay (whatever you happen to think of PETA). My issue here is with a publication wanting to profit off of what Vick has done. I have the sneaking suspicion the magazine stands to make a bunch of  money off of this and is doing this for a bunch of free press (yes, I do realize that I am giving said publication free press by writing this post, which is totally annoying but the whole thing really pisses me off so I am going to keep going).

Somebody woke up and thought: Hmmm. How can we get a bunch of press focused onto Playgirl and hopefully make a bunch of money in the process? I KNOW! Let's get someone who hurt voiceless animals... and then let's turn it around to make it sound like WE are the good guys by turning part of that income into a donation.

To that somebody: Not a nice idea. Your mom would not be proud.

I don't know about you guys, but for some reason I am not turned on by animal torturers ("former" yeah, yeah, yeah). I am also not turned on by magazines that seek to benefit/make light of former animal torturers.

As far as I've read PETA has nothing to do with this. Playgirl came up with this one all on their own.

WOW, what a downer! Okay. Here is a cute/bored picture of Mickey in an attempt to lighten things up after all that griping. Ta da!

My Happy Place

That is my husband. Those are my dogs. The sun is shining.

Things are good.

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Bright Pink Prizes and Little Brown Dogs

I've been entering a bunch of contests lately because... well, basically because I want to see if I will win. Does that sound weird? In addition to wanting to win I want to SEE if I will win because THAT IS A TOTALLY DIFFERENT THING.

Yes it is. Work with me.

Long story short... I WON SOME CUTE LITTLE DOG BONE SOAPS FROM PHETCHED (go to phetched to check out what they look like)!

Thank you phetched! Go on over to phetched because they have fun stuff and, clearly, contests. That are winnable. Which are the best kind.

FULL DISCLOSURE: This prize DID NOT come with the little brown dog pictured with the bright pink gift above. The little brown dog was already mine. For  better or worse, the little brown dog is mine.

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Happy Super Wicked Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's, you guys!

It has been a super, wicked week over here at Fido & Wino.

Super. And wicked.

And CAN YOU SEE HOW FREAKING CUTE MICKEY LOOKS IN THIS PHOTO? Ah Mickey. Every now and then he redeems himself.

So, super fun stuff this week:

• Fido & Wino hung out over at the Petfinder blog with the Top 10 Reasons a Dog Makes the Best Valentine's Date

I am sure there are actually around 183 reasons dogs make wicked dates but I could only think of 10 at the time I wrote that post. I'll do better next time.

And...

• Kayloo passed her Therapy Dog test!

This means Kayloo is good sometimes. We are very proud of the little squirt. These extended care facilities will never be the same again.

Happy Friday, people! Happy Weekend! Happy Valentine's Day!

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8AM on a Saturday (!!!) Morning

Early morning walk before Kayloo's (successful! BOO YA!) Therapy Dog test.

8am on a Saturday morning is damn early, people. Damn early.

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Positively Thrilled and Burnt Cliffs

I took this photo last weekend; the last weekend of January 2010. I love how the brush  looks like it's burnt and Kayloo and Mickey looked positively thrilled to be a part of it all.

Two years ago I didn't have dogs. I don't think I noticed things like rusty crimson cliffs and how beautiful a tree looks balancing beside a dilapidated old barn.

If I did, surely I didn't appreciate all this quirky wonderfulness nearly enough. 

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Puppy Lovin'

Reason #63,000 why having dogs rocks...

Coming off of a mega-weekend of renos for John's office. It's exhilerating, it's exhausting... it's kinda high-inducing because paint thinner is wicked WICKED stuff. Did you see that TEN FOOT TALL BOUNCING RUBBER DUCKY BOUNDING DOWN THE STREET?

What?

And now we're home. Home, lovely home. We are about to down the pasta MOTHER LOAD and wash it down with some well-deserved wine. We are likely going to stare at the boob tube for some mindless entertainment. AND we are going to play with our sweet pups.

I mean, LOOK AT THEM. They love each other. It's fabulous.

Makes me wanna squish 'em.

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Cheeky Little Bugger

Is it just me or does it look like Mickey is sticking his tongue out? Cheeky little bugger...

Quick reminder: January is Walk Your Pet Month! Go on, get on our there are drag your pup around in the cold, wind, rain and mud! It'll be fun. You'll be wet and miserable and all that, but other than that it'll be great! Trust me!

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January is Walk Your Pet Month (Unless You Have a Snake)

Turns out that even though right now John and I are living in the Big Dusty Office Build-Out Extravaganza (I bitch intelligently discuss the process here and here) the world continues to turn AND...

January is Walk Your Pet Month!

So, if you'll allow me to get up on my little soapbox, I would like to take this opportunity to talk about how important it is to walk your pet.

BUT, before I really get rolling... I'm not so entirely sure how important it is to walk ALL pets. I don't know, do people walk their pet llamas? Feel free to educate me here, guys. How about snakes? Snakes don't have... legs... Although, I was at a gay pride parade in Toronto once and I had my picture taken with a HUMONGOUS 10 foot tall bare chested Amazon man in shiny chaps with a GIGANTIC... boa constrictor (heads out of the gutter, people) languidly drapped across his shoulders and wrapped ever so frighteningly around his neck.

WHAT?! I told you to GET YOUR HEADS OUT OF THE GUTTER!

Okay, stay with me. We're getting back to dogs.

Dogs.

I think it is very valuable to bring this topic up every now and then, because even the best intentioned of us sometimes forget how important it is to get our dogs out for a structured walk every day.

Every. Single. Day.

Even when it's bitterly cold. Even when it's grey and miserable. Even when it's been raining buckets for a kajillion days straight and if it rains for one more bleeping second I AM MOVING TO THE MIDDLE OF THE FREAKING SAHARA DESERT I'MNOTFREAKINGKIDDING DON'T-PUSH-ME-I'M-SERIOUS-THIS-TIME!!!

Three little points to keep in mind:

1. 1 hour, 2x a day: Unless your dog has some kind of health issue, chances are he would appreciate a brisk one hour walk 2 times a day. 2 TIMES A DAY?! That's right. I know Cesar says at least two 30 minute walks a day, but let's be honest with ourselves. 30 minutes innocently turns into a skimpy 7 1/2 minutes down to the corner and back, doesn't it? So let's go with the oh-so daunting 60 minute walkathon. Twice. You can do it. I have faith in you.
2. The park doesn't count: It really just doesn't. The park is AWESOME, don't get me wrong, but Fido needs structure in his life, just as you need structure in yours. So head down to the park AFTER you've hiked around with your pooch close at your heels- he will benefit from the discipline and you will reinforce your role as Da Boss.
3. A big backyard doesn't count: See #2. Go on. I'll wait.

1, 2, 3! Super easy, right? If you walk your dog THE WORLD WILL BE A BETTER PLACE. I am not kidding you:

If your dog is exercized he will be LESS likely to wreck your stuff, which will make YOU less likely to have a crazy flip-out spazz-fest, which will make you MORE likely to be zen and get along with your partner, who will probably take you out to dinner where you will have a FANTASTIC spicy tortellini paired with a scrumptuous, oaky cabernet sauvignon and I am pretty sure all those things together are the recipe for WORLD PEACE. I'm pretty sure. If you google it you'll find it. Yes, there it is.

So, enjoy Walk Your Pet Month! Go celebrate by, oh I dunno... walking your pet maybe. Especially snakes. And make sure you go to the park after your walk because look at how much fun Kayloo and Mickey are having in this photo!

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Pretty Darn Good Day

Kayloo's antennae are up. Mickey is gnawing on something soggy and disgusting, after which he probably rolled in it so we could all enjoy the aroma for HOURS AND HOURS TO COME.

Yeah, I'd chalk that up to a pretty darn good day...

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Puppies and Paint and 5 Seconds of the Globes

This weekend was a blur. I don't want to be a drama queen, but there was drama and there were Queens (okay, not really, but there WAS Dairy Queen ice cream wonderfulness in there somewhere so THANK GOD for that).

There WAS however, painting. And painting. And painting... and since I'm too damn lazy to write about it right now I am going to share my weekend with you in pictures.

As mentioned, there was painting:

There were also the puppies who had their socks walked off because we felt guilty for being lame Painter Freaks :

A bunch of spicy takeout...

More paint...

A bit of sarcasm:

Me: Oops! I'm not in your way am I?

John: Yeah, actually you are.

Me: I think what you meant was, "Of course not, darling. You could never be in my way."

John: Ha, ha.

.... silence...

John: Seriously, get out of my way.

There was week old red wine in a handmade mug with my name on it. Cuz, when you're walking around with a bunch of dust on your face who cares how your alcohol is served:

A whole bunch more paint:

Five seconds of the Globes:

And now I'm ready for bed.

Good night.

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Magic Touch (or treats probably...)

Where is my damn dog, and why isn't she doing back flips to materialize at my side when I call her?

Aha.

Three guesses as to why she is sitting so perfectly at my feet.

First two don't count.

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