Weekend in Review....

It was a fabulous spring weekend in my corner of the north east! With temps in the 80's and no shortage of sunshine, outdoors was the place to be!

On Saturday, I took the weenies for separate walks. They are just like children and I have discovered that they do much better when separated! Lucy and I went to the park in Dorchester. We had a blast and met lots of new doggy friends including a handsome chihuahua named Gizmo! It was very hot and we had to take a break half way through. When we got back to the car, Lucy had a big bowl of water and was quite content to just lie down on the passenger side floor with the A/C blasting through her flowing locks! We were about 1 minute from the house when Lucy decided to get up off the floor. While we were sitting at a stop light, she decided to get on my lap and then proceeded to "get sick" all over the driver's side door. I'll spare you the details, but apparently the heat and excitement were a bit much for her.

When I got home, I took a quick break and then took Scoob for a walk around the neighborhood. We went down some new streets and checked out some areas that we had never been before. Scooby was very excited to be out and about on such a beautiful day.

Sunday was very busy as well. Steve and I got up and did some shopping in the morning. We then went to Fireflies for a nice brunch. Then it was back home to get the weenies and we headed down to Tracie's house for some animal interaction!

Lola (Tracie's Dog) has puppies and they are getting so big now! So we let the weenies check out the puppies. I do not think they knew what to do with the little puff balls! After visiting with the puppies we headed outside to visit the baby goats! Scooby was less than enthusiastic about hanging out with three baby goats. Lucy on the other hand could not get enough! She followed those little guys around everywhere they went. They exchanged kisses and even tried to play a bit.

We took a break and the three of us (humans) went to Target for a quick shopping trip. When we got back we bottle fed the goats. I, of course, got to feed Captain Jack Sparrow (my goat!). After the feeding, we decided to call it a day.

I took a picture on the way home to summarize the weenie's weekend escapades:

Here are a couple more shots of the details:

Captain Jack (the one on the left) and Brett:

And this is Silver:

Scooby checking out the puppies:


A close-up:

Understanding the assignment....

I think often times in life, people lose sight of what's really important. I once read a cute story online that went a little something like this:

When I was a little girl, my mother always told me that happiness was the most important thing in life. When I got a little older and I went to school, my teacher asked the class what we wanted to be when we grew up. I raised my hand, and confidently responded, "Happy". The teacher looked at me and said, "I'm afraid you don't understand the assignment". I looked back at my teacher and said, "I'm afraid you don't understand life."

Being the person I am, I think about this story from time to time.

Happiness is such a complex emotion. It is involved in so many other feelings. And yet, people go without it for so many reasons.

If you think about someone that you truly love, doesn't thinking about that person make you happy? Your mind is always making connections between people, places and things that make you happy; and other emotions. This is of course, all unique to the individual. For me, when I think of being warm and cozy, I'm happy. When I think about my animals, I'm happy. When I think about making other people happy, I'm happy. Ok, I think you get the idea. But the point is, your mind and body will fight to make these connections to happiness. Even if you think of something that has an element of sadness to it, for instance the loss of a loved one. While this is often the most painful experience a person might go through, there is always happiness to be found in the memory of that person. You think of the wonderful times you shared with that person, and you smile.

Laughter is one of the most widely recognizable signs of happiness. I believe that people should laugh every day. Next time someone makes you laugh, in the middle of all that is going on, go inside yourself and recognize the feeling that is going through your body at that very moment. That feeling is the reason human beings have an innate desire to be happy.

Since happiness and laughter seem like such wonderful things, it is only natural that we should crave more, right?

So why then do people learn to live without it? There obviously isn't a single, or correct, answer to this question. But it is something that I think about quite often. As human beings, we can make the mistake of substituting other emotions and feelings for happiness. Almost a way of tricking ourselves into believing that we are "happy", when in reality it is something entirely different. But if for a short period of time, we can fake ourselves out, and the happiness seems genuine, then what do we need to change?

There are a whole mess of factors that come into play which determine human behavior. And by no means am I trying to make this process sound simple. It just fascinates me that there are people out there that choose to go through life unhappy. Their lack of happiness is most likely brought on by something that they can control, yet they do nothing about it. I often wonder, who told them that it was ok to settle for less than happy?

.....perhaps they just didn't understand the assignment.

Always have your victory dance ready!

Last night, I spent the better part of my evening watching the Bruins defeat the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. After listening to a house full of Canadiens fans "boo" our Nation's national anthem, I'd like to say that karma had something to do with this win. But in reality, I know that it was just plain and simple, good hockey.

The Boston Bruins not only defeated the Habs in this series, they swept them four games to zero! Boston has not made it past the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs in 10 years. And, to put a nice big red bow on top, this is the first time since 1992 that the Bruins have swept the hated Canadiens in any series. For those of you out there that are not die hard hockey fans, the Montreal Canadiens are to the Bruins what the Yankees are to the Red Sox. They are the Bruin's kryptonite, and they have now been eliminated from the playoffs.

Now, let's not get ahead of ourselves, round 2 is just around the corner, and it looks like we will be playing the New York Rangers. I couldn't be more excited that the Bruins will continue on in this series, and I look forward to watching this magnificent group of athletes as they work towards their ultimate goal; to bring the Stanley Cup back to Boston.

If I were a super-hero, my super power would be overthinking..

When I made the decision to start a blog, I was hoping to avoid the "Welcome to my Blog" initial entry. After making my first post this morning, and later pondering the details of this page, I have come to the conclusion that the one thing I was trying to stay away from may in fact be inevitable and necessary. I'm not going to spend a bunch of time telling you that I created this blog as a place to voice my opinion on one particular subject I'm obsessed with, because that is simply not true. Nope, my reasons for this page are very simple. I know, the anticipation is driving you crazy, so here we go.

They say that the human mind never rests. Taking that statement into consideration, I must be some type of super-human. My mind seems to be in overdrive on a regular basis. I am constantly running things over in my head. I should also mention that I am an extremely hyper-vigilant person, so that only adds fuel to the fire! New ideas, old ideas, random thoughts, observations; some of these things I share with other people, others I do not. It occurred to me that a blog would be the perfect place to share some thoughts that have the tendency to wander through my mind.

How did this page earn it's title? The answers to this question should reveal themselves throughout the context of my many future entries.

Never Argue With a Mack Truck!

Isn't it funny the things that people say to you that you remember? Growing up, my father was full of information that he seemed to (thoroughly) enjoy sharing with people. His children were, of course, no exception. One particular time in my life when these words of wisdom were flowing like the mouth of the River Nile, was when I was learning how to drive. I was pulling the car out of the driveway, and off in the distance was a very large truck, barreling down the road. As I sat there with my blinker on, waiting to turn onto the road, my father uttered the following six words: "Never argue with a Mack Truck". Now, I assume that he continued to talk and explain to me why "arguing" with a Mack Truck was never a good idea, but that was 13 years ago. Another time while my father was in the passenger seat, he decided to point out to me that when you are approaching a car that is attempting to pull out onto the main road from a side street, you should always look at the car's tires. Since the rims usually have 5 or more spokes, it is very easy to tell if the car is moving or not. Now, at the time, being a normal teenager, I was probably more concerned with why my father was sharing such an odd observation with me, rather than focusing on the actual usefulness of what had just been said.

Among the many, many things my father taught me, I'm sure he hopes I remember a little bit more than the random tidbits he shared with me while I was learning how to drive. For instance, lecture #753 on the proper way to save money or lecture #601, "Always have a contingency plan". Yes, these things stay with me as well, but I find it fascinating that to this day when I see a car attempting to pull out of a side street, the first thing I focus on are it's wheels. And, I cannot drive past a large truck without these words echoing in my head: "Never argue with a Mack Truck".