Napoleon, Billy, Angel, Hiro

Napoleon was back at Piri's Place in May for an extended period of time. We were delighted to have him for a long stay as previously he had only stayed a couple of nights at a time. Napoleon {also goes by Leon} loves to play fetch and so him and I spent a lot of time out back doing just that. He was also the bravest of all the doggy guests and ventured into the doggy pool and just had the jolliest time.

During nap times Leon comes right on our lap or stays real close {he has to be touching us someway or another} and burrows when it's time to say good night moon.

Still treats times are his ultimate favorite. I don't blame you buddy! They are kind of my favorite time of day too!

His mom and dad got him Snoopy bowls. They said even though he's not a Beagle, Snoopy's funny personality reminds them of Leon and so the bowls really are a reflection of his antics. I do agree - Leon is one funny guy.

This is Billy. He is a 7/8 year old cocker spaniel mix. The way I was able to meet him is kind of neat. 

During drop off, Billy's mom let me know that she had come across Piri on Instagram as we both belong to cocker spaniels. That kind of led her to know more about DogVacay and she gave us the highest compliment by asking us if we can take care of Billy for an overnight stay. After a couple of hours of him being at Piri's Place I realized he looked familiar - even his name had a familiar ring to it, and I realized he was the same cocker rescued by a local cocker spaniel rescue group in the area - Oldies But Goodies Cocker Rescue. I remembered seeing his video and wished we could take him in. But seeing him now with possibly the funniest, nicest and caring humans, it seems as if they were all really meant to be with each other. Billy's mom said they fostered him at first but decided to adopt him. That's the kind of happy ending I love. 

Billy's stay was short but we loved every single moment with him. Him and Piri also shared the same mannerisms and had the same cocker shenanigan look. Like that picture above. Man, I'm a sucker for those eyes and nose. 

This is Angel. She is a 4 year old Pug/Chihuahua mix and she came to Piri's Place for daycare one day in May. Possibly the sweetest, most mellow dog we have seen, Angel literally took my heart away and all I wanted to do was cuddle with her all day long. She is so affectionate and sweet mannered and all she really wants is to be loved and petted. Ok. She also wants carrots as well. In place of her usual treats, her mom says she gives Angel carrots because she needs to be on a diet to lose a few pounds. And boy does Angel eat those carrots like she is one determined pup.

Angel is also another case of foster fail - her mom had first taken her in as a foster but after the first day she said she just could not imagine her life without her. I can see why. 

Always a happy pup, Angel's tail is always wagging and we know when she is super duper happy when we hear her tail tapping loudly again the floor or wall.  

Hiro was also back at Piri's Place in May. He is a very special guest here as he is Piri's friend {and together with Mini the Westie they become the infamous Three Musketeers :: also see here}. 

While he missed being with his humans and his human baby sister, Hiro also amused us, too. We talked to him about all different kinds of things and he looked on as he was really listening, he grabbed a tennis ball and asked to play and got sleepy when I gave him a nice neck scratch and massage. Hiro has this extra skin or fur? around his face that folds when he sits and lays in a certain position and it's just the cutest. 

I promised to chase away any bees that got in his way but I missed one and he quickly came back inside to hide. But Hiro the Brave mustered up his courage quickly and ventured out once again to explore the backyard. 

 // Piri's Place on Facebook

From the garden

Over the weekend, we picked some of vegetables and fruits we've been growing in our garden. Those bright round orange guys are Ida Gold tomatoes. They were firm and sweet - such a great taste. We used the green onion to make some perilla leaf kimchi {Yangkyu made it this time and I realized he is so much better at slicing and dicing and making everything look so pretty} and the Detroit Dark Red Beet I will later boil today and either eat it as a snack or put it in my salad. 

We didn't really expect much from our garden - we ended up pulling out our fava beans because they were not forming, possibly because of the hot weather, and our also our lettuce all of the sudden didn't do very well {I don't think I was harvesting them right}, but what we are getting out of all the others vegetables is very fulfilling. 

We have tasted almost everything from vegetables, fruits and herbs. The only other thing we're waiting on is our Danver Carrots. I think we'll probably have to wait until the fall to harvest those. 

Happy Monday!


 // Basket from the Maven Collection

Who let the dogs out!

 // Buddy, Napoleon, Murray, Sydney, Rain and Piri // 

We weren't expecting a former client to book a daycare request with us today but she had thought that it would be nice for her dog to stay with someone, and also doggy friends, while she had some things to take care of. We had already 5 dogs, including Piri, staying with us but two were slated to go home today and so we accepted her request and up until the afternoon we were surrounded by 6 dogs who made us feel pretty special. 

It was such a busy weekend - always something happening and things to take care of but both Yangkyu and I feel pretty good about how productive we were. 

Things are definitely winding down here and we are taking it easy and getting to bed early to start the new week. 

Hope your weekend was a good one! 

Happy weekend!

I don't mean to be always talking about dogs here but here we go again. 

Last Friday, I mentioned how we will have a total of 7 dogs coming and going until mid-August. Well we'll have a full house {we take in a max of 3 dogs at a time} plus 1 extra guest staying this weekend and so it'll be a lot of tails wagging, faces being licked and tennis balls flying around. 

I have also promised myself to never cut  my own bangs again and so I will also be fighting off the temptation all weekend long, doing a movie night {Interstellar} and feasting on lots of corn {summer is all about corn, cherries and sparklers for me}.

What do you have planned? Hope you'll make it good one! 

My very first blogger block and other wonks and happenings in my life

For the past two days I've been sitting in front of my computer trying to write something for the blog and I have absolutely nothing to post. It's a first. And it's weird. 

Up until now I always had something I wanted to say. Whether it was informative, silly, filler or what not, I posted once, even three times a day on some days, and even during some weekends. But lately, it feels like I'm dragging my feet and I can't even think of a good filler topic/photo to pass the day. 

As more guest dogs stay with me, it means I am taking pictures of them all the time - usually high quality photos with my digital SLR and I spend time after dinner uploading, editing, resizing, saving and writing a full summary of their day to their owners. This takes a lot of time and energy. A lot. And it probably takes more time because my iMac is performing slower and slower as the years go on. It drives me nuts sometimes. Ok. It drives me nuts all the time. And after doing this day after day, week after week, sometimes I just don't want to take pictures anymore. 

What makes it harder is that I am still learning to take less photos. It's a real struggle for me because I am always afraid that if I only take one photo of a moment it'll be one that is full of mistakes. I am actually not one to preview my photos and zoom in to make sure that the photo is sharp and crisp. I know, it's a weird habit of mine. And I always pay for it because what looks like a completely focused picture in the preview pane is totally not when I open it up in Photoshop. 

I've been also complaining. I normally shoot with my Canon7D and my 24-70mm lens. It's heavy. And I can't stand it. But I stick with it. Everyone also says so many good things about the 50mm lens but I have a love hate relationship with it and I just can't seem to shoot with it inside my home. I always feel like I am missing a very good moment of the dogs because I am stuck with a fixed lens and by the time I reposition myself, the moment has already passed. So I've been moping around and longing for the Fujifilm x100t again. It's such an expensive camera and my Canon and both my lens have cost me an arm and a leg and so investing in the x100t isn't so easy. But I do sometimes wish I had a lightweight, quality performing camera. 

But will it really make things easier? I wonder. Maybe. Maybe not. 

My routine has also been also all sorts of off these past few days. Actually we found seed ticks in our house over the weekend on Sunday. It absolutely horrified me. I noticed that there were tiny blood stains all over entryway tiles. I thought one of the dogs had cut their paw but when I went to wipe the blood away I noticed tiny seeds on the paper towel. When Yangkyu was working out in the living room he noticed some on the carpet. Upon closer inspection they were ticks. After looking it up on the Internet we realized they were seed ticks. The blood was because either the dogs or we were stepping on them and popping them. As I said before, it was horrifying.

I spent what was supposed to be a relaxing Sunday cleaning like a mad woman. I mean vacuuming, wiping, dusting and washing everything - sofa and cushion covers, dog toys, bed, blankets, our bedding, towels, leashes and collars, you name it. I wasn't done until 2 am and I was completely wiped out. The very next day we had pest control folks come by and treat our house and yard and us and our DogVacay guest spent time outdoors while everything dried. 

We checked in with all the guests that stayed during that weekend and found that all dogs were on some sort of preventative measure, as have Piri so it perplexed us. We have never had this problem before. 

Thankfully we haven't seen any ticks since and all the dogs coming until mid-August are also on some sort of flea and tick preventative. I am hoping and praying that those buggers will keep out far away from our home and yard.

On another more invigorating note, I have actually kicked up my exercise and dieting routine up a notch. Well I actually wasn't on a diet but decided to do it a little less than two weeks ago. I always seem to hit a certain weight/image and start to really hate the way I look and then finally get my butt in high gear to do something about it. That's always been the challenge for me -- taking that first step. I mentioned in "My Routine" blog post that I exercised an hour on the iMotion step machine. I am now on it for 2 hours which burns about 600 calories for me {I purchased a heart monitor to measure} and I have done this 6 days out of the week. I am also eating small amounts throughout the day. I don't eat take out food, fried food, sugary foods, etc. I'm eating a lot of fish and vegetables and fruits, yogurt, whole wheat bread and drinking tremendous amounts of water and green tea. I also eat sweet potatoes and broccoli and kale chips as snacks. I do cheat from time to time but that's in small amounts, and just during the a day in the weekend {I mean it was Pocky. Strawberry flavor.}.

Since starting to exercise for 2 hours and dieting last Monday, I have lost 4 pounds and I feel good. My legs feel sore but they are the good kinds of sore and stretching makes everything feel good in a weird sort of way.

Now today, I am hoping to move past my current camera and photography woes, tick troubles and ride out my exercise and dieting high and get back into my usual groove and find things to photograph, write and make. 

What's going on lately in your neck of the woods?