the dog whisperer

Anyone who has ever had puppies before knows that they essentially do whatever they want, whenever they want - as is evidenced by our carpet. After many, MANY sleepless nights, and the end of shalom in our home (shout out to Rabbi Shmuley), I have decided that I am going to be the pack leader of these hooligans and teach them a few things.

Me being the ever-diligent state employee, I googled (at work) pet training techniques, found them on a good website and printed them out in case I needed to make notes or highlight. I figured the most logical and easiest command was "sit." At first, the twins looked at me like I had 3 heads, but several fractions of treats later and little or no help from Kell, I think we are learning. Bear in mind that they don't budge if I am empty-handed, but baby steps, people.

I now of course begin to think that I have a connection with my dogs of Dr. Doolittle-like proportions, and they will be speaking in complete sentences by tomorrow afternoon.

Fast forward to Friday morning: I am getting ready for work reveling in my talent of being "one" with my four-legged babies. (I wondered if PetSmart has any openings in their training department...They'd be lucky to get such raw talent.)

The heathens are undoubtedly wreaking havoc all over our bedroom, and suddenly their growls subside and a muffled, panicked cry emerges. I look out at the room, and Olive is patiently sitting beside my bed quietly (that tipped me off). I could still hear Charlie's cries, but couldn't find him. After some searching (not a lot - our apartment's not that big), I slowly open my closet door and out emerges a traumatized Charles Barkley. Nice mom. I am still apologizing.

Dr. Doolittle. Sure.

why is it so painful to be a Bulldog?

I've never really been one for stats and numbers - communication majors avoid those whenever possible. And it just makes things more difficult to look at last night's game in hindsight at all the what ifs. I was drying my hair most of the time, but I caught the important stuff between sections of hair and the CHI: What if Nichols had made the three-pointer? What if we had made all our free-throws? What if WVU had missed theirs? Is there worse way to lose than a last-second three? You try not to think about it, but I guess it's just human nature. State has "this close" down to a science.

Win or loss, the Bullies had quite a ride in the NIT. After being unjustly (in my opinion) snubbed by the NCAA, MSU proved that they were more than just a flash in the pan. Say what you will about the NIT, but being a top seed of any tournament sounds pretty good to me. Not to mention steamrolling through 3 games against other hungry teams (which is more than I can say for the Rebs). They have nothing to be ashamed of, and maybe this will light a fire under their mesh shorts for next season. They'll all be back next year (Lord willing) except Dietric (good game, BTW) and Piotr, and maybe the team and coaches will look back on this game with a vengeance.

At least they got a trip to the Big Apple; I'VE never been.

It appears as though I have a penchant for parentheses.

grey matter...

(I stole the title of this post from an article I read lately. I couldn't think of anything more clever.)

I've never really been one for rom-coms or sappy, love-y, kiss-y dramas, but something about Grey's Anatomy has gotten into my bones. Maybe it's the characters; maybe it's the cute boys; maybe it's just me falling in with America's obsession with doctors, surgeons and the like. Whatever it is, the show has grown on me like a fungus.

I must confess, I didn't watch GA from episode 1. But I've been watching it long enough to appreciate the characters' background and history both by themselves and together. Trust me, this show makes Desperate Housewives look like...well, I can't think of anything silly and shallow right now.


Last week, Izzie and George got wasted and ended up in bed together. I always thought there was a spark of something between the two of them, but Izzie has been distracted by Alex and Denny, and George with Meredith and his now wife Callie. This turn-of-events shocked me to my core and paved the way for a new story line.

Poor George - he's clearly confused, and the writers tortured the hell out of him in this episode. Probably my favorite scene from last night's episode is Izzie and George in the linen closet, right after George remembered (silently in front of Callie and her intimidating dad) the previous night's transgression. No one speaks, but you can almost hear what they are "saying" by their actions. It was heart wrenching to see them so torn, and I briefly thought it would happen again before George rushes out. George and Izzie are so broken and human - I felt like I was in the room with them.

The George/Callie/Izzie love triangle has stolen the show away from the title character Meredith. McDreamy is trying so hard, too hard, to protect Mer from herself. She subconsciously tried to drown herself and lost her mother all in one week (don't you just love TV?). Derek tries to convince her that she's being set up by another surgeon to mess up a facial reconstruction, and she tells him to shut the door on his way out. He's so affected by this that he can't continue his day without worrying about Meredith. (He always looks like he's about to cry to me. He must just have "sad eyes" as my mom calls them.) Merek finally lets bygones be bygones and gets frisky in the end.


LOVE me some Cristina Yang. She's tough, smart as a whip and totally blindsided by how much she cares for Burke. He wants to marry her and start a new life together, but she longs for things to return to the way they were. Somewhere between a snobby British surgeon and an amputated foot, she realizes that she has to give something to Burke or she'll lose him forever. So, it's decided that they'll get married in City Hall without mosquito netting in her face (veil).

Don't really care about Alex and Jane Doe. It's a cheesy subplot, and it goobs me out. I guess it can't all be great.

erin go bragh...

There's something endearing about St. Patrick's Day. One day each year, everyone can be Irish. (I myself am sticking with Greek - 365 days a year.) I like being in the car on my way to the grocery store or some other mundane destination and seeing men, women and children dressed in green walking their dogs, running or pumping gas. I like to imagine that they all had a green shirt or accessory in mind for March 17 and have been looking forward to wearing it. The leprechaun in the picture is Beeeeeeeert Case, this year's Grand Marshall.

A spring tradition that I was somewhat aware of also occurs on this day - Mal's St. Paddy's Day Parade in Jackson, Miss (this year is the 25th anniversary - pretty impressive). Now I had heard glowing reviews of this event from people I consider to be good-time-havers, so I put aside my aversion to parades with the idea and the first-hand accounts that "this parade is different." I donned my green shirt (I had to get a new one at Old Navy) and went to a great pre-parade brunch at our friends Cliff and Katy's house. At this point, I was ready to see what all the buzz was about.

On our way to downtown Jackson, we passed scads of cars from all over the state and further and had to park what seemed like miles away from where we were going to set up parade camp. I was beginning to understand what a big deal this is to lots of people, and my curiosity grew. Upon arrival to our parade-watching site, I was really getting excited to see the event.

Well, let me tell you this: something about wearing green, flying beads and Sweet Potato Queens (there are only a few originals - the rest are Wannabes...really - that's what they call themselves) makes people come out of the woodwork and act INSANE. I saw from my perch some high school kids reveling in what seemed like their first "drunk" experience, a guy in a green apron puking his guts out and a basset hound enjoying green Jell-O shots. What happens at the parade stays at the parade? I think not - it ends up on people's blogs.

"Erin Go Bragh!" I guess...

horror of horrors

Do you ever have something or someone totally blindside you with information you weren't aware of? I recently was in a picture at an event for work, and due to the magic of the digital camera, i immediately discovered my...DOUBLE CHIN. Yes, folks, that's right, a double chin. One would think that one would notice such a hideous change in one's appearance, but I was taken aback in every since of the word.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I think I am the picture of nutrition. I never claim to always obey portion control rules, and I rarely turn down dessert. But, I also didn't think that my eating habits had gotten any worse in the past few months. If I may, I will blame this weight gain on marriage. My loving husband Kell will not eat Lean Cuisine for supper, so it is really his fault that I have gotten so out of control.

In light of this realization, I have decided to take control. My goal is to lose 10 pounds by the first football game. I intend to reach this goal by sticking to a "half diet," as I have named it. In this new regimen, I will try to eat half of many of the foods I typically would devour entirely such as: ice cream, hamburgers, steaks, etc. Foods exempt from this new rule are vegetables and other items low in Weight Watchers points. Fortunately, my building at work has weekly Weight Watchers meetings, and I plan to become a regular. Think it will make a difference at all?

By the way, I do realize that exercise is ideal, but I am not motivated at this point. One step at a time, people.

who knew?

I felt kind of pressured to post something since it's been a few days since my last one. This is the best I could come up with.

Ok, I understand that it is probably more logical and more interesting to you guys out there if I watched American Idol and posted about that. Well, I must say that ever since LaToya London was booted off the show several years ago, I've sworn it off to protect myself from further heartache and temper tantrums. And this is my blog, and I'll post about what is interesting to me. So there.

Moving on to a show that really owns me right now. House M.D. on Fox is an outstanding medical drama starring the foxy Brit Hugh Laurie as Greg House, M.D., a cantankerous yet brilliant diagnostician (actually a fake specialty). Anyway, Tuesday's episode was one of the best I have seen in a while. Not only was it just a great show, but Dave Matthews guest starred as a mentally challenged musical phenom. I must say, I thought Dave was a talented musician, but he also has quite the acting chops as well. (Check out Hugh and Dave here.)

If anyone is searching for a new television commitment, I recommend this one. Even Heather and Trey watch it.

for dear old STATE, we'll yell like H-E-L-L

I'm glad the fight song spells out "hell" because in my house growing up, it was a bad word. Anyway, if anyone in my extensive reading audience did NOT watch Sunday's basketball game, you certainly missed quite a show. In the words of the always articulate Kell, we "beat the snot out" of Alabama. As Yaya pointed out in her post, not only did we beat a neighboring state (bragging rights are underrated), but we prevented our eternal in-state foes, the Rebels, from reaching the #1 spot in the SEC West. To quote Clifford, "so close, yet so far away." And if you ask me, that makes it even better. And to those of you who think it's ok to support Ole Miss's Coach Kennedy just because he's new, you need to step back and take a look at your devotion to the Bullies. It's not personal, Coach; it's business.

By the way, does anyone think Joe Iupe looks JUST LIKE Pete Maravich? Am I losing it?

Upon review of this post, I understand I'm over-using quotation marks like yaya.

i've surrendered...

Ok, so I've joined the blogging world, which I'll affectionately call the Goob Squad. I say "I" because it's very unlikely that Kell will join me in my most recent crusade to keep in touch with (stalk) friends. Have no fear, Facebook, you were still my first love.

I've seen lots of cool blogs out there, and I have to get mine up to par. Anyone who feels the need to offer guidance, please feel free to do so. I'm essentially stumbling around trying to make mine cute.

TGIF