Where do I start?

Here's what I didn't anticipate - that I'd be forced to chose between sleep or blogging. 

When I had my son, I had this vision that I would be able to do it all: Scientist for 40 hours a week, Mom for 24/7 (to both human and fur kids), and at some point in there squeeze in some wife duties.  But I'm just not able to make it happen. The last time I picked up my camera was...I can't even remember.  As soon as the kid falls asleep, I hit the hay.  He's a horrible sleeper (and he's TWO! Not even a baby anymore!) and is up every couple of hours still. On a good night, I get three straight hours of sleep.  Consider this your PSA if your childless: CONSIDER STAYING THAT WAY IF YOU LIKE YOUR SLEEP.  :)

But then I saw my camera sitting above my shelf getting dusty. It made me cry.  I went out to snap some shots. Life goes on.


And this is what my result looked like:

Crappy, out of focus, over-exposed garbage. I cried.

Then, I tried again.

Dear God, what happened to me? I threw in the towel. I cried.  (Sensing a theme here? Being sleep-deprived makes you cry easily)

But then I read your comments. And they...yup, you guessed it, made me cry.  That there are people out there who I have invited for so many years to share my life with me and my dogs...and they are still there waiting.  No matter how shitty the outcome.

So I can't promise I'll be on here regularly. But I'll be on here more frequently than the never I have been. 

Bueller? Bueller?

Any one out there? 

Surf's Up!

We needed to escape the heat.  And the chaos.  Mafioso Jr turned one this weekend, and so the dogs were in a state of chaos with the birthday festivities.  Ok, I won't lie -- it was just one dog who immediately scheduled a visit to his therapist as soon as the party was over.  Take one guess. . .


So off we drove to a friendly dog beach.  The coastal fog was just what the humans needed and The Mafiosos found the much needed room to romp in the cooler air.  I was saddened to see the huge "NO PIT BULLS" sign at the entrance.  And I was ready for a fight if we did get turned away.  But we weren't given any grief...the most blatant display of breedism we encountered were a few people who would turn away in the other direction with their dogs once they saw Bruno.  Hey, whatever.  Let ignorance be your compass.  In all reality, it's Carmela that they should of have been scared of! Two people did ask what breed Bruno was, and when I answered that he was an American Bulldog, they both said "He's gorgeous!"

But of course he is. I tell him daily in case he forgets. 

How could you not think he was anything other than gorgeous?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I mean, he's almost perfect. It hurts to just look at him.

 

 

 

 

 Ok, ok, I realize I may be going a bit overboard.  But that's because I realized today that my dog is old.  He no longer has the energy he used to have and he pooped out pretty damn quickly.  So instead of focusing on how much older he's getting, I've decided to focus on the fact that he's pretty damn beautiful.

Even with his huge ol' butt.

 

 

 

 

 

Speaking of butts, that's about all I saw from Vinnie once we got to the beach.

 

 

He took off immediately with his nose going into over drive. I figured he was enchanted with seagull shit, and I wouldn't see him until I bribed him to come back with Cheerios.  Listen, I'd much rather think he was off chasing seagull shit than dead things to roll in.  Which I'm sure he did. But I'm going to pretend he didn't because just the thought of that idea gives me the shivers.

 

 

 

Gino totally thought the beached sucked.  He ran to the waves to check them out and immediately hightailed it back to me and my blanket.

 

 

He really didn't appreciate sand in all his crevices.

 

 

 

 

"Yeah, ALL my crevices if you catch my drift."

 

 

 

 

And see, now I'm back to thinking of Bruno getting old.  He's losing teeth.  In fact, I think Mafioso Jr. and him both have the same number of teeth now:  2. 

 

Anyway, I don't mean to share our happy trip story with my incessant worry that Bruno is aging by the minute.  We did have lots of fun.  And, I know that a fun time was had by all because I have photographic proof.

"Don't do it."

Do what?

Oh, you mean post the picture of you actually SMILING?



NOW WHAT?

"Just wait.  Just you wait."

Oh, look who decided to show up!

"We need to come back again tomorrow.  

There's a rotting seagull carcass I didn't finish rolling in."