Meet Samson Lorber!!

We adopted a new puppy this afternoon! His name is Samson and he is a 7 mo old brown/gray pit bull. He is 50.5 pounds and did very well at his first vet visit. He also had a bath and spent time exploring the house and wrestling with Ronin. He and Ronin get along very well so far - they were rolling around and wrestling all night! When they were tired and thirsty, they drank out of the new giant water bowl we bought at the same time - super cute :) Here are some of Samson's first pictures...

At the vet's office - getting a check-up and all the right vaccines.

This is when I first picked him up this afternoon

This is both Samson and Ronin sitting like good doggies after playing around for about an hour. Notice how they are both so out of breath, their tongues are hanging out of their mouths. Even though this picture makes Samson look a lot bigger than Ronin, it's only because Ronin is sorta laying down. They are the same size at the moment, but I think that Samson is going to gain 20 or so more pounds yet. We'll see...

Happy Valentine's Day

Tonight we went to Uncle Ru and Aunt Lou's place for a Valentine's dinner party. Our friend, Steve is in town visiting and he came along with us. Steve lives in Chicago and that's where Ru and Lou are from most recently so they had plenty to schmooze about. First of all, here is a picture of my new haircut...curly mode. It's sorta long for the cut (I'm getting it trimmed next week).

This is the first time in about 6 months that we have seen their Dog, Deneshka. He's a Black Russian Terrier. He is giant! He's only about 7 months old and is already over 7lbs! Here he is getting his Valentine's day treat...a huge raw beef bone.

The gourmet hard at work...we had a delicious feast of apple & squash soup, salad, prime rib with french lentils and potatoes dauphinoise. Then Ru brought out a beautiful Valentine's plate - homemade chocolate ice cream, heart-shaped lemon sponge cake filled with a kind of chocolate ganache and a dark cherry jam button, garnished with sliced strawberry. The plate was decorated with red and creme syrups. Yum!

A cute one of Steve and Abe:

Whistler, BC

Last weekend, Abe and I trekked up to Whistler Blackcomb in BC, Canada for a long weekend of skiing (snowboarding for Abe), food, and beer. We were there with a large contingent - 21 people - and we had a blast making some new friends, enjoying the breathtaking scenery and of course having a cold one (ok, many cold ones) in the hot tub. The group rented two mountain-side houses at Taluswood which I would highly recommend. The one we stayed at was ski-in/ski-out to the Creekside Gondola.

We naturally had way too much food - including a never-ending supply of bacon and some of my newly discovered and amazingly delicious cookies. Even though there was relatively no snow on the mountains, most of the runs were decent and we only had a few run-ins with rocky dirt patches. The weather on Friday was spectacular and we took a number of impressive pics of the area. We had lunch on the peak of Blackcomb at Christine's which was excellent but also pricey.

On Saturday, we met up with some of Abe's work colleagues for a couple of runs. Here is a pic that we took with them.

Abe and I with some of his LP colleagues who were there also (Photo by Tim).

For lunch on Saturday, Abe and I checked out the "best mountain bar in North America" (top 10 worldwide) called Garibaldi Lift Company. The atmosphere is pretty cool and the food was definitely yummy. We also ate at Sushi Village which had delicious food and sake margaritas which were good, but overrated.

We also discovered that our feet are terrible and always hurt :( We got a tip to remedy this problem in the future (bananas and foot massages - I'm down with that!), so we'll have to try it out this weekend if we head to snoqualmie. All-in-all, it was a great trip and we definitely want to go back soon. For a brief moment, I wanted to figure out a way to spend a season up there working at the resort so we could ski everyday. I think the 60+ yr old that we met on the lift who has skied 61 days this season (!) inspired me. On the other hand, I'd miss my husband since he said "No way!" to that idea.

Honeymoon in Jamaica

I know that I have been negligent in posting about our honeymoon. Finally, here it is - there are many more pics on snapfish, so comment or email me if you want the link to them. Also, I know I have promised pictures of my new haircut in curly form, but I honestly have not taken ANY. We are going to Whistler with some friends this weekend, so I'm sure there will be some from the trip.

This is the view from our room at Sandals Dunn's River Villagio Here's another:

This is the island-side of the resort:

We went on zip lines through the rainforest...here we are all geared up:

At the beach-party


Abe LOVED playing beach volleyball - he played twice every day

The weather was pretty windy most days


We went on dune-buggies through the back country and then cliff jumping to wash the mud off. It was definitely a highlight of the trip!


Swim-bar + all-you-can drink + inner tubes = vacation bliss


There was a big focus on Bob Marley EVERYTHING


We also enjoyed playing life-sized chess


Overall, we had a fantastic time!

Haircut

I cut my hair really short yesterday to donate to Pantene’s Beautiful Lengths program. Here are some pics of the process. I’ll take some pictures of it curly soon and post them as well.

Pistons in Portland (updated with pictures!)

Abe is definitely a Pistons fanatic; probably even an NBA fanatic. That is why we made the trek down to Portland on Wednesday night to see the Pistons take on the Portland Trailblazers. (Note: Portland is the closest we can get to the NBA these days now that the Sonics have jumped ship to Oklahoma). It was planned to be an amazing trip, we would head down after work, enjoy the treat of club-level seating, stay at a hotel for the night, and drive back up to Seattle for work by lunch on Thursday. And it started out almost exactly as planned.

We decided to cut out of work a bit early, excited to get to Portland (a three-hour drive) early enough to change and relax a bit. It poured the entire trip down; some of the small rivers we passed were noticeably starting to rise over their banks. When we checked into our hotel, the hotel receptionist told us they were already talking about shutting down I-5. I-5 is the main (some would say only) North/South highway in Western Washington and is certainly the way we would go home. Simultaneous thoughts of “uh-oh” and “oh well” went through my mind, but really I was focused on having fun and watching Abe revel in his Pistons-mania. (More on being stranded in Portland next).

The game started at 7, we were dressed and ready to go by 4:30. We decided to start the party early and head to the bar for a drink (or two) and some snacks.

Abe’s eagerness didn’t take long to hit and by 5:15, he was itching to head over to the arena. He thought perhaps we could get in early, watch the players warming up and maybe even get autographs! Since we were there to live out Abe’s passion, I decided to go along with the fantasy and we set out for the Rose Garden. It was only a 5 minute walk from the hotel and they weren’t letting anyone in before 5:30.

We went around to the Lexus Club entrance and waited with other eager fans (maybe they were just eager to get in and dive into the gourmet buffet, cause I didn’t see anyone else bouncing off the walls with glee…Abe). When they finally opened the doors, we ran right to our seats (front of the 2^nd level) to plan our route to the court. After talking to many security guards and finally sneaking by the “guys in red coats” (later we were told that these were the people that will ruin all your fun), we made it down to the court! Most of the starters were already in the locker room, but Walter Herrmann, Amir Johnson, and Jason Maxill were sitting on the sideline. After an elbow to the ribs, Abe got the courage to call out to Herrmann and ask for his autograph. He said yes! Abe walked over and got all three of them to sign his hat.

Then we went back upstairs, ate some delicious food, and settled into watch over beloved Pistons continue their winning streak…or so we thought until the 4^th quarter when they blew their lead and ended up losing to the Blazers by 1 point! My very official take on it is that AI couldn’t find the basket, Prince couldn’t miss, and somewhere in between, the Stons just let the Blazers score too many.

We wish this was a picture of the final score, but actually it ended at 84-83 with Portland on top :(

On Being a Negligent Blogger

I know that is been quite awhile since my last post. That's only because SO much has been happening! I don't have time to elaborate on all of it right now, but I will find the time soon and don't worry, there are lots of pictures as well. Here are the highlights:

-Meeting Eytan in DC with Megan and Bibi
-Honeymoon in Jamaica!
-New Year's Eve in D-town
-Grandma's 75th b-day brunch (including special video msgs)
-Pistons in Portland (that's tonight, I hope they win!)

Also, Abe and I are in Portland and it's been raining so much here lately (and melting snow) that there is a possibility they might close I-5 (the main North-South Hwy) tonight...we would be stranded! I guess if that happens, I'll have plenty of time to blog!

That's all for now folks!