Black Friday

I love shopping, and I love buying people gifts. In past years its been hard to beat amazon for online shopping.

Here's to hoping their black friday sales are going to be good, I think I'm not going to brave the cold thisyear..


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Another wedding!

One of my best friend's weddings is coming up, and I just love talking with her about planning it and organizing it and all things wedding. It also gives me an excuse to buy new shoes! One of the amazing trends in weddings that I had wanted to (but didnt) go with on my wedding day was that of bright and exciting shoes. Since my wedding was on a beach, I wen't barefoot for most of it, and for the reception, I had a nifty cheep pair of white flipflops that fit the bill perfectly.

For her wedding, both she and the rest of her bridal party will be wearing these bright red pumps. These are the ones I'll be wearing:



Awesome, right! LOVE THEM!

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Teaching "Recall" to your Dog

Bonne Bouche and I went to the dog park this past Saturday for the first time. He did incredibly well. We actually attended a short lecture on how to teach your dog recall. While there wasn't much practice time, the instructor provided us with three different alternatives for how to teach your dog to come when called.

1) Utilize "touch". If your is well trained in the touch command (where they touch their mouth to your hand or whatever "mark" you request, you can slowly shape your dog to come from farther and farther distances to complete the touch command.

2) Have the dog sit by your side, and practice "stay" on increasingly longer distances, and then come when called.

3) Have your dog on a long lunge line, and have a partner "hold" him/her steady. Walk away from your dog with your back to the dog. Turn around at the end of the long leash (15 ft+) and then turn around and call your dog excitedly. The trick to making the dog come is stepping backward. It seems to drive the dog's instinct to "catch" you.

I think 1 and 3 seemed to work the best, and we will work on that this week. In the meantime, here is a video of us playing at the salt water pool after class. He was actually doing very well. I'm so proud of him!



Its funny though, earlier in the day, there was about 30 dogs hanging around the park. Many looked just like him, and it was hard to keep an eye on which black furball was our BB. Once I realzied he was the only one with the Bright Red Collar he was easy to track down. He is just so handsome!

Me, all around.

I love blogging, but up until 5 minutes ago, I didn't really have a blog. I've had blogs in the past, but always compartmentalized them into specific subject areas: a photo blog, a blog about my wedding, a travel blog, etc. The novelty of each of those has worn off at some point, and eventually they got abandoned. Since I like blogging, and no longer want to pigeon-hole myself into a specific niche, I thought what better niche than NO niche. A blog where I can post about travel AND photography AND my dog AND my family/friends AND whatever else I feel like. That is the kind of blog that will never get old, and that is the blog that I am here to start today. Wish me luck!

~C.F.B