worst night ever...

So last night I got home from work and got the doggies all dressed up in their harnesses and leashes and got tons and tons of little cheese snacks cut up and in my pocket, and grabbed a poopie bag and we headed out the door. As SOON as I heard the door click closed (and locked), I realized that the one thing I had forgotten was keys. You know...keys. To unlock the door. Standing in the hall and realizing that all I have is two dogs, a bunch of cheese and a poopie bag was not a fun experience. I don't even think Macgyver could do much with those materials. I took the doggies over to the park to go potty while I tried to calm down, and then we did a brief spin around the block while I tried to think of what to do. At the end, we headed down to the corner store to see if I could use their phone to call Neil. I could use their phone, the guy said, but unfortunately it only dials local numbers. Of course our phones still have Portland numbers. Bah.

So I head back to our apartment building and decide to wait for someone who lives there to come home and ask them to borrow a phone. I swear I meet people all the time coming in and out of the building. I figured it would be a little 5 minute wait. No, this was the night that EVERYONE stayed in, apparently. We huddled in the little entrance to the apartment, sitting on the front steps. It was cold and foggy and the doggies were shivering and SUPER nervous, I'm sure feeding off my energy which was super nervous. I think I forgot to mention that Neil had an opening last night, at which I was supposed to be and which he wouldn't really be able to leave to come home and unlock the door for me, so I really didn't even have a clue how calling him would help the situation but didn't really know what else to do.

So, we're sitting there and the dogs get more and more nervous and colder and shiveryer and every time a person walks in front of us on the sidewalk, they freak out barking at them and if a dog walks by, it's even worse. I still have cheese bits in my pocket, but am pretty shaken at this point by all of their barking and wondering how I'm going to get back into the apartment and am forgetting to try and calm them down by giving them out and at this point a little cheese bit was not going to be enough to calm the dogs down, I don't think. I have their leashes cinched down so that they will stay close to me - I don't want them getting out onto the sidewalk and biting ankles as people walk by. So they're sitting on my lap and a little cocker spaniel or something walks by and Swarley starts screeching and then he lunges for the dog and yanks the leash out of my hand and just goes for the dog. We were about a second away from him biting the other dog when I grab him. I'm almost in tears at this point because I want to try and do something to alleviate the dogs barking, as it just seems to encourage them to stay in the entryway, but I don't want to leave the entryway because that's my only way to contact Neil. I'm in full-on panic mode.

At this point, we'd probably been sitting in the entryway for a half hour or so, and no resident of my building had come home yet. My nerves are raw, the doggies nerves are raw and we're all shivering. Finally, a few minutes later, a guy and a girl come home who live there. And, of course, they are leading a dog. Perfect. So I pick Swarley and Lola up so that I don't have to try and control their lunging while I'm trying to talk to the people. But this makes the barking much worse, and as I'm trying to explain that I'm locked out and can I borrow a phone, I can barely talk over the racket that the dogs are making. Their dog is, of course, completely calm and collected and delightful. They misunderstand me at first and think that I'm just locked out of the building, and then I finally get across that I'm locked out of EVERYTHING.

They are really nice people, and they mention that if we have a window open, we can just climb down the fire escape and go through the window. YES! The window is open. So we ride up the elevator together to the 5th floor, the dogs barking their asses off the whole time, and head up to the roof. The guy offers to take the dogs back down and wait outside our door while I climb down the fire escape. Awesome. So he starts back down the stairs and I look over the edge of the building from 5 stories up. Did I mention that I have a ridiculous fear of falling? This fire escape ladder is on the outside of the frame and has no cage or protection whatsoever. One wrong step and I'm free-falling from five stories. I panicked and ran after the guy. He very calmly offered to climb down for me and I took the doggies back down the stairs with the girl, who waited with me outside the apartment, which was nice because I was totally shaking at this point. When I looked over the side of that apartment building, all I could see was me falling to my death. So we stood in the hall and waited and the doggies were getting more and more wound up. They were down on the ground at this point and Lola decides that she wants to play, she growls up at the girl and wags her tail. What the heck? Now you want to play?! Luckily with all the barking, and yapping and racket, the girl still commented that they were "so cute". I guess tiny adorableness trumps loud, raucus screeching barking. That's good to know. So we waited in the hall forever and the girl goes to check on the guy and he's trying to enter our neighbors window and having no luck (thank goodness it was locked). She got him straightened out and finally the door to the apartment opened. In my mind I heard the sound of angels singing. I thanked the guy and the girl profusely, led the doggies inside the apartment and burst into tears.

It's just been a stressful time lately with the dogs, as I'm sure you've gathered. Our walks are sometimes very hard and it's not really enjoyable to head out on them knowing that I have to spend the whole time distracting them from the rest of the world. I was probably only locked out of the apartment for an hour, but it was the longest, most stressful hour of my life, with staring death in the face from the top of that building, to the dogs barking and freaking out over everything. And Neil just isn't around much to deal with them, so most of the weight of all this is falling on my shoulders. And it all just kind of came crashing down on me last night. Needless to say, I was in no condition to go to the opening at that point. I put on my jammies and poured myself a STIFF drink.

Sleep seems to have helped a little, and we had a very good walk this morning, but it was a rough one last night. I've made an appointment with a professional trainer who specializes in on-leash agression just to give myself a little help and get some tips on if what I'm doing with the dogs is right. I need to get some of the weight of this off my shoulders and move forward. I hope that this will help.

Leash Agression

I've done the research and must correct a wrong accusation. I think I implied in an earlier post that Swarley and Lola learned their bad leash behavior while at Grandma Lila's house. It turns out that Lila had nothing to do at all with our doggies acting the way they do when they're out on walks on the leash. Turns out it was all probably Neil and I. After doing a lot of reading of internet websites, I found that our doggies are suffering from leash agression. Basically, dogs are super social animals that want to check out each other and meet each other. When they see each other in the park, they are anxious and excited to get to each other so they start pulling on their leash. You start yanking on the leash and yelling at them, and they get really frustrated and then eventually, angry. It's like road rage - you're so anxious to get where you need to go, but you hit traffic and it makes you crazy. Once you've experienced this situation, the next time you pass a dog, you start tensing up, pulling on the leash early and warning them away from the other dog, which then signals to them that they should be fearful of the situation, which stimulates the barking and growling. Vicious cycle. And it all sounds eerily familiar.

We both definitely get very very tense when passing other dogs. We both definitely have yanked on their leashes and yelled at them. And apparently we have done this enough to reinforce that their reaction is the correct one. Lila did not really take the dogs out on leashes - she always went off-leash and ran them down a deserted road. So it really has nothing to do with her, and everything to do with us.

So now we go out every day with bundles and bundles of little cheese snacks and we're trying to learn that passing other dogs results in treats and passing them quietly and calmly results in LOTS of treats. I usually start treating them right when we walk out the door, every time they look up at me. Then, they constantly look up at me to check in and see if I'm giving them treats. When we walk past a dog, I just call their name quietly and give them treats as we pass. In theory, a great idea. Every now and then, though, they start lunging before I can anticipate it and they get a few barks and lunges in before I can call them to get the treats. Or an off-leash dog comes racing up to them, in which case I don't blame them for going crazy. One website said it best - how would you like it if a complete stranger ran up to you and started hugging you? Not much...

And the other challenging thing is that there is two of them, so if I have one of them under control, it doesn't mean that the other one is under control as well. Swarley can be behaving perfectly, and Lola is being a bad girl, and vice versa. It's hard to handle two at once. And also, because they're so tiny, I have to bend down to give them the treats which means, usually, that we have to come to a complete stop. I think when the books say to treat them as you walk past the other dog, they are thinking of a large dog who's mouth is already right at your hand level. Easy to walk and treat. Not so with the little dogs.

So, we're slowly learning - all of us. But, it is supposed to take months to shape the behavior that you want, even though it only took a few days to create the bad behavior in the first place. I am going to have a session with a professional trainer to get some extra help and tips. She specializes in on-leash agression and I think it will be really useful to get a little help from a professional. I want to be able to actually enjoy my walks with the doggies someday.

So that's been the most major thing on my mind lately. Besides that, life just keeps on tickin...
Oh, and on the other, much less meaningful front, both doggies appear to be slimming down. Swarley has a waist and Lola has a hint of one. Beautiful.

Labor-free Labor Day

In appropriate fashion, we had a very restful Labor Day weekend, full of much sleeping-in, many naps, lots of eating, and lounging around outside in the sunshine. After my woe-is-me tale of no autumn in San Francisco, the City must have heard my cry because what it delivered this weekend was three days that were really close to feeling like early-autumn. I even saw a tree with leaves changing. The air was crisp and clear with a hint of warmth from the sun and the only thing missing was the smell of smoke. So, I guess this means I should just whine more often. I'm sure that's what you would all love to hear - more of me whining about the weather. :)

But we had a really nice weekend. Saturday we lounged around all morning, luxuriously sipping coffee and doing absolutely nothing productive. Then we headed off to Zeitgeist, which has a really great outdoor beer garden full of picnic tables, to celebrate some friends' birthday's. We had some good beer and some good conversation and headed home when the fog finally rolled in and it got a little chilly. And then we went to bed. Talk about R&R!

Sunday I went to my garden and to the Farmer's Market, then we put together a picnic, gathered up the doggies and headed over to free Shakespeare in the Park in the Presidio. Unfortunately, the free Shakespeare was terrible - really overdramatic and screechy - but the picnic was delicious. We left as soon as we finished and headed down to our old stomping grounds - Crissy Field in the Marina - and walked for awhile to enjoy the sunshine. When we made it home, the exertion of eating a picnic overcame us, and we took a two hour nap. Then Neil headed to his studio and I made bread and dinner and finally got the curtains on one window hemmed and hung. Finally, some productivity. Unfortunately, the other window is still naked. This has been a very slow move - we've been there almost a month now and there are still many boxes to be unpacked. Ah well...

Monday we went and had a delicious, huge breakfast at the Pork Store on Haight with our friend, Brynda. These breakfasts are ridiculously large, but you just can't bear to leave the food on the plate it's so darn good. I had French Toast, eggs and bacon and Neil had what is called, "Eggs in a Tasty Nest". That's eggs nestled in a nest of hashbrowns, green bell peppers, onions and cheese. And it's pretty darn good. By the time we made it home, we were both in food comas and so another two and a half hour nap was on the schedule. It was just a glorious nap, with both doggies snuggled in with us. Then we headed to Doloros Park with the doggies to join another picnic with some of Neil's friends from school. The doggies spent the entire time trying to reach the food. Then they discovered the people picnicking behind us with some Challah Bread, and the people were more than happy to share their bread with the doggies. Neil finally had to ask them to stop feeding them bread - they're on a diet for goodness sakes!

And that was pretty much all that went on this weekend - nothing strenuous, that's for sure. But I've been feeling pretty stressed out at work lately. Our audit began today at work, and since that's basically the job description of my position - "prepare for audit" - it's kind of a make-it or break-it event for me here. You don't really want to screw the pooch on the main reason you're being paid. So I really needed all those naps and lazy mornings.

On the doggie front, we'd been doing really really well lately with walks and not crazy-barking. We'd been meeting other dogs and ignoring runners and bicyclists. And then last night, for some reason, it's like they instantly lost all their long-term memory and reverted to crazy-barking again. We're back at square one. Neil had a really bad time with them last night when he went to take them out for their nighttime potty - they barked at people, dogs, bushes, the moon - whatever. And our morning walk was pretty ugly today, too. This poor runner was doing circles around the park and must have passed us three or four times and each time he got an earful from the doggies. Bah. It's so frustrating. But I guess all we can do is keep trying.

And on the weight side of things, we were doing pretty well until they found the bread-sharing picnickers yesterday. That probably set them back quite a bit. But I feel like I'm starting to see tiny waists on both of them. Baby steps.

An ode to autumn

As I've complained about it endlessly on this blog, I'm sure you've all come to realize that there are really no seasons in San Francisco. As someone who has spent the last 29 years of her life perfectly in tune with the Pacific Northwest seasons, obviously this poses a bit of a problem. But it really is interesting what you learn about yourself when you move out of your comfort zone. I have learned that Autumn is actually my favorite season. My whole life, I would have said summer was my favorite, and it is still a pretty great season, you can't argue with that. But the season that I absolutely find myself just totally pining away for, is autumn.

And, it now being September, my finely-tuned, built-in season identifier is primed and ready for autumn. It's time for that barely noticeable, extremely subtle shift in the air - a tiny drop in temperatures, a slightly different angle to the light, just a hint of *crisp* in the air. I feel like when I'm home, it's just these tiny differences, but you instantly know that autumn is here. One day it's summer, and then next, it's autumn.


And, of course, there are different parts of autumn. Early autumn, where there is still a chance of an indian summer - leaves are just turning a hint of color and mornings are crisp but afternoon still offers some warmth. Mid-autumn, where the trees are fully turned but the leaves are still hanging on, the light slants at a steeper angle and there's a general hazy, smoky, very crisp feel to the air. And late autumn, when the leaves are brown and falling and now it's serious about getting cold, and there may have even been some good rain storms.


There is just something about autumn that really makes it special. One of the things that makes it special are the activities that autumn brings about - I strongly associate autumn with picking apples and making apple cider. Many of the years, when I was growing up, my girl scout troop would go out to Zuckerman's farm and we would make apple cider and carve pumpkins. We also had some neighbors that made apple cider. And last year, my dad built his own homemade apple press, and we made apple cider out of the apples off our own trees. There is just something amazing about the leaves crunching under your feet, the air so cool and crisp and perfect and nipping at your hands as you throw apples in the grinder, then move them into the press and screw it down, watching the beautiful amber juice run out. There is just something about the air outside in autumn - it's clear as a bell, it heightens the senses and focuses you. There is no summer warmth making you drowsy and lazy and unfocused. I think about that autumn air and instantly, nostalgia twists my heart all up with memories.


Then, of course, there is always Halloween in autumn as well. The pumpkin carving and the dressing up and the candy collecting. The leaves again crunching under your feet as you tromped from house to house, watching that candy bag filling up. The smell of smoke from the warmth indoors tickling your nose and laying a slight haze over everything.



And that indoor warmth is another thing. When the air gets a little too cool and your hands have been a little too nipped by the crispness, the warm lights from indoors beckon and you know that you will soon be cozy, warm, snuggled by the fire with a blanket, which seems to make that autumn air even more perfect.



*sigh*

Alas, in San Francisco, September means the beginning of summer and as you all pull your winter sweaters out of the drawers and push your shorts to the back of the closet, I will just now be pulling out my tank tops.

Oh autumn, how I miss you...

Doggie Update

So you know that the doggies are now living with us. We picked them up on Saturday August 22nd in Ashland, from my parents. And we're all getting re-adjusted to living together again. It's an adjustment for us, because you have to get back in the swing of caring for little dogs, which takes time and TLC during your day. You have to consider their morning potty and walk, their afternoon potty and walk, and their evening potty. And these are three events that haven't happened in a year. So, it's trying to get the schedule re-tuned. It's an adjustment for them because we have very different rules in our house than Lila did in hers. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE having them back and will never give them up again, but there have been a few days of mopey faces.


Most of you already know that they are fat, now. Grandma Lila spoiled them and they have packed on some serious pounds. If you can't see their ribs, they are fat. There is not a rib to be found on either one. Chihuahuas are supposed to weigh somewhere between 4-5 pounds. We had weigh-in two night ago, and Swarley popped up at somewhere between 6-6.5 pounds and Lola weighed in at a whopping 8-8.5 pounds. This is not a truly scientific weigh-in: I used the bathroom scale and subtracted my weight to get to theirs. It's not ac exact science. But generally, you get the idea. They are overweight.


But that's just a few pounds, you might say. Sure, when you're a 140 pound human being. In equivalent human terms, Lola is about 70 pounds overweight and Swarley is 30 pounds overweight. So if you had a person that should only weigh 100 pounds, it's like they weigh 170 pounds. Ugh. Think of what that does to her poor little joints. Okay, I know it could be worse. It could be this:

But we're definitely going to playing the doggie version of Biggest Loser. So far we've discussed portion control and excercise. And I think they get it. But they have to want to lose the weight.

Unexpectedly, weight is not the only problem that we will have to address. It seems they have somehow learned, in the last year, to bark, growl, yip, yap and generally make obnoxious noise at anything that runs, walks, rolls, or otherwise makes itself known to them. Especially bikes and runners. They HATE bikes and runners. They've always been a little bit nervous and anxious, but hardly ever really freaked out with people and other dogs. Especially not Lola - she was the much more mellow one. And we've definitely never had serious growling before. It honestly makes it hard to go on walks right now. I've been yelling at them to stop and to hush and then I read something the other day that said this is the last thing you should do - the dog thinks that you are barking along with them. Great. So now we're going out with treats - lots of little tiny treats - that they get when they behave properly. When they meet a new dog, I try to give them a treat right at the beginning, so that they associate new dogs with good things - treats! When I see someone running towards us, I distract them with treats. However, there's always that unsuspecting runner that pops out from around a corner or a bike that zooms by while they're standing on the corner and then they go apeshit. But, we're working on it. If anyone has tips, I'd be more than grateful to hear them. This is my least favorite new development - even more than the weight. The weight we can take off - but I've never been great at training.

So, we'll do weekly weigh-ins and hopefully they'll start to shrink soon. And I'll let you know if they start to make friends with the other doggies and the runners. Until then, I'll be heading out each morning with fat, noisy babies. But still my babies.

New place/new perspective

Saturday we moved into our new apartment in the Alamo Square/NOPA neighborhood of San Francisco. It was actually a pretty leisurely move as we had already moved over a bunch of boxes last Saturday. We slept in, and didn't pick up the U-haul until 11:00am. Our friends Linnea and Brynda helped us out - yeah, we moved all the furniture with only one man, we're strong women. But I think Neil got more than his share of heavy boxes. We took two trips and were completely wrapped up by 5:00 and the truck wasn't even due back until 6:00. Of course, the apartment looks like a tornado hit. There was barely room to walk.

But we left it in that state and headed off to explore a new restaurant in our new hood. We treated Linnea and Brynda to dinner for their awesomeness in helping out and being in cheerful, chipper spirits all day long. They were the best. We went to a little pub and had delicious cold beer, and...um...cheeseburgers, emphasis on the cheese. It was so weird, it was like they had poured nacho cheese or cheez whiz on top of the burgers. It overpowered the entire burger and was leaking out all over the place. Plus, it acted like industrial strength glue! I think I still have little bits of napkin stuck to my fingers. Ah well, the beer was good and food is food. And the neighborhood is GREAT! Beautiful old victorian houses everywhere, good, cheap eateries on every corner and the PARK right across the street. Perfect.

Yesterday we had to go back to our old place and clean and I have to say, I'm not going to miss the Marina one iota. It's a fancy neighborhood that is pretty nice and quiet, with great views of the Bay and Golden Gate bridge, but the people. Oh geez, the people that populate that area are such total douchebags. I would try to describe them but you just have to experience it to understand. And there is no affordable places to eat at all. I did a yelp search once for restaurants in the Marina that were $ or $$ and all I got back were sandwich shops (not even open for dinner) or chinese restaurants. I did that same search in our new neighborhood and up popped 39 choices of indian food, chinese food, american pub food, mexican food - all shapes and sizes. YAY!

So cleaning sucks, of course. There's just no gratification at all. Atleast when you are moving, it's hard work but you know at the end of it you have a brand new place. Cleaning - what's the reward? I guess getting the security deposit back... I learned two very important things while cleaning our apartment -

#1: If you spill soy sauce down behind your vegetable bins in the fridge, don't wait until you move to clean it up.
#2: Never, ever, ever - even if you think it might be pretty- ever, ever install anything in your house that involves grout. Just don't do it. You will regret it later. Not that I had a choice here, but wow - what a pain in the ass.

So we unpacked some last night and then went out to Popeye's to bring home some yummy chicken dinner. On the way home, we found a wonderful coat rack out on the street waiting for us to take it home. It was like a welcome to the neighborhood present. :)

I have to say, moving to a new place now is definitely like a new, refreshing look at San Francisco - it's a whole new perspective. And I'm excited. We pick up the doggies this Saturday, and so thus begins year 2 in the City. I think it's off to a pretty good start.

I leave you with a picture of the view from the park that our apartment is across the street from:

Playing Catch-up

Wow - I keep meaning to blog about stuff, and then we take another trip, and I fall farther and farther behind, and now it's just too daunting a task to blog about everything. So I'm just going to do a quick catch-up blog, re-capping all of our summer travel fun. And there was a lot of summer travel fun. I don't think I'll schedule travel like that ever again, though - it was almost too much. From June 12th - August 4th, it was travel, one/two weeks down, travel, repeat. And I just feel kind of exhausted now. Don't get me wrong, I love travel and I love summer vacations, but I don't think I'll cram them all together like that again.

So, without further ado, is the catch-up/re-cap of the summer.

June 12-15th: Portland trip

We went home for a weekend and spent 2 nights out at the beach with the entire family, plus the doggies. Neil celebrated his 31st birthday while were there.

Ah, the Oregon Coast in the summertime. Looks like San Francisco.

After returning home from Portland, we held a beach-bonfire birthday party for Neil here in S.F., out at Ocean Beach. It was a really nice evening of roasting hot dogs on wooden skewers and testing our fire-building skills.


We also took a Sunday drive out to Mt. Tamalpais, up the coast, and back inland along the Russian River. The weather was beautiful and the views were amazing!

June 26th-June 29th: Ottawa Trip

After a brief rest from our trip home, we packed our bags again and headed to Ottawa to visit our good friends, Krista and James. I met Krista on a mission trip when I was 16 and we have been best friends ever since. However, in the 14 years that we have known each other, we've only seen each other 6 times. This was the 7th. And it was lovely.

July 15th - July 19th: Chelsea's Wedding

We got a little bit of a breather between Ottawa and heading home again to Portland for Chelsea's wedding, but not much. We left foggy skies behind and landed in beautiful 80-90 degree weather. We spent two days relaxing down at the lake, which I haven't gotten to do in years, I had my first manicure and pedicure, wedding was a wonderful, joyful gathering of friends and family. Not to mention beautiful weather and delicious food!

After such a wonderful time and such lovely warm summer weather, we came home to thick fog and chilly winds in San Francisco. Needless to say, I was missing Portland as much as when we first moved. The fog has persisted, and we're just starting to come out of it now.

After returning from Portland, we took one more Sunday drive out to Lake Tahoe for the day. It was a last minute, unplanned decision - just a need to get out the city - but ended up being a really nice drive, covering all different types of terrain. The Sierra Nevada's are really gorgeous. We arrived at Lake Tahoe with just enough time to snap a couple of pictures, drive along the western side up to Truckee, and then head back home. It sounds like a lot of driving for not much sight-seeing, but Neil and I are all about the journey. We both like to get out on the open road. No pics from this little side-trip.

July 30th - August 4th: New York City

Our main trip of the summer, this was supposed to be our anniversary trip, but then my sister scheduled her wedding two days before our anniversary, and we had to re-schedule. It was still our anniversary celebration, just not actually on our anniversary. :)

I could write volumes and volumes about this trip because we had SO much fun and absolutely LOVED NYC, but this is where I get bogged down and then neglect the blog. So I'm just going to put up some pictures and add a few little blurbs.

Museum of Natural History - meh, not so great...


Subways - we figured them out pretty quick and they are air-conditioned! Who knew? Unfortunately, the waiting platforms are not.

Chelsea Art Galleries - pretty cool, but very non-descript. Can you even tell there is multi-million dollar art housed in these structures?

Greenwich Village - our favorite. I could live here.

As a Pacific Northwesterner, I've always prided myself on being able to "handle" rain. But NYC rain - it beat us. We were forced to buy umbrellas after obstaining for over 7 years.

The Cloisters (part of the Met) - really peaceful and beautiful.

The Met - fantastic and overwhelmingly large!! It also beat me - by the end of our time here, I was completely crippled and couldn't put full weight on my left foot. Yikes!

Central Park - such a great green space full of nooks and crannies. Loved it!

Times Square - meh. But you kind of have to do it, right?

Grand Central Station - can you believe they were going to tear this down?!

View from the hotel room - Anniversary splurge totally worth the price! (But I did get a discount!)

Anniversary dinner was eaten here in NOLITA. I had lamb, Neil had salmon, both were DELICIOUS!

SOHO walk - all the old cast-iron buildings and the cobblestones were pretty cool.

Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge - it was so hot out, we didn't get very far.

Last look at NYC before heading to the airport - this is right outside our hotel, on the Lower East Side.

The trip was really fantastic, we saw just enough but not too much that we were completely overwhelmed. We spent the first 4 nights at my cousins apartment up in WA Heights, which was fantastic. It almost felt like we lived there, and we had such a nice time getting to visit with him.

And finally, when we got home from NYC, it was time to pack up and MOVE! Here is our new place:

Look at that kitchen - I am SO excited!!!

So, that's the catch-up. Whew - got through it. Hopefully now I can keep up on a more regular basis! Hope everyone out there is having a great summer as well!!