It’s no secret that I love Moo Deng the pygmy hippo, but IDK if I’ll ever make it to Thailand to see her in person.
Also, I always have my Pic Stitch app cued up whenever the opportunity arises to do a side-by-side comparison 😆
Another pygmy hippo, Poppy, was born last December at Metro Richmond Zoo in Virginia. Domestic flights to Richmond from LAX are pretty cheap, plus I have hella Southwest points. Anyone want to go with me on a weekend trip to Richmond? 😆 If pygmy hippos aren’t your thing, CNN Travel also named Richmond #1 on their list of America’s Best Towns to Visit in 2024!
I spent my morning in urgent care to make sure my wound wasn’t serious and my leg isn’t going to fall off. I spent $50 and an hour in a waiting room full of sick, crying children (my worst nightmare!) for the doctor to tell me that my leg is healing properly. She also prescribed me some preventative antibiotics. I e-mailed my boss earlier to let her know I’d be out today and attached a picture of my bloody leg. She was like, ‘Why are our legs the same color? Work-from-home white!’ Way to kick me when I’m down 😂
Afterwards, I had lunch with Nori at Northern Cafe. We were supposed to go to Mendocino Cafe, but I missed a turn 🤪
Clearwater at South Bay is accepting donations to help those in need during the LA fires, and Torrance is much closer to me than where I was originally gonna drop off at the Y in Koreatown, so I dropped off my goods there. They were amazed at all the dog and cat food I gave. I felt like Cher in Clueless 😆
I’m also a monthly donor to the ASPCA. The animals need me!
On my way back home, I saw this guy in my rearview driving behind me smiling taking a picture of the back of my car. These bumper stickers make me laugh, and I love when they put a smile on other people’s faces 😊
I thought it was a made up # on the ‘How’s My Crying?’ bumper sticker, but I googled it and it’s the White House’s #. How apropos 😅
Shi couldn’t celebrate my birthday with me this year, so she doordashed me some breakfast from King’s Hawaiian 😋🤙🏼
I like to spend my birthday surrounded by wieners, HBU? (@ Puppies & Yoga)
I live at least an hour south of any of the fires burning in LA right now. You can’t see the smoke from here, but you can smell it in the air, and my car’s covered in ash. We didn’t see any smoke on the way up to West Hollywood for puppy yoga, but we did see this injury lawyer billboard 😆
We ate at Food Network’s Brooke Williamson’s beachside restaurant, Playa Provisions. Proceeds from their fish tacos went to wildfire relief, so of course that’s what I ordered. It was delicious!
Pop-prosecco? Yes, please.
I hardly ever go to the beach, even though I live literally 2 miles from the ocean on Manhattan Beach Boulevard. Donna & David happened to be in town for a wedding this weekend, and as San Diegans who moved to the east coast after high school, they like to go to the beach whenever they’re back in California.
‘Go to the beach,’ they said. ‘It’ll be fun,’ they said.
Pardon my ashy white legs LOL, I had a little accident and slipped on some rocks 😅
Fun Fact: I’ve always wanted to be Miss Argentina from Beetlejuice for Halloween.
I instacarted some non-perishables and necessities for families and pets who have been displaced due to the fires. The YMCA in Koreatown is accepting donation drop-offs.
Pammie collected money from the girls and got me an awesome Moo Deng shirt that I wore to puppy yoga, and had leftover money, so I said to just donate it to one of these major organizations accepting monetary donations for the wildfires: LAFD, American Red Cross, Direct Relief, World Central Kitchen, or the Salvation Army. They need it more than I do. Please give what you can 🥺
During the pandemic, I got the squirrels in my parents’ backyard a little picnic table and set up a video camera so we could watch them eat the unsalted nuts we’d leave out for them. Aside from Tiger King, it was my quarantainment 😆
I got my dad a Birdbuddy (a smart bird feeder with a camera and solar roof) and a bag of bird seed for Christmas, and we set it up yesterday. We got our first visitor today 🥰
My sister’s husband heard me losing my shit over the bird videos, and he was like, ‘Please get a dog already!’ I applied to adopt this pup last week at The Labelle Foundation (a rescue in LA). His post has over 5,000 likes, so I was probably one of hundreds of applicants. I haven’t heard anything back 😔
…or me doing an everyday task and thinking about the roadkill I saw on the freeway last week.
me: OMG! That was a dog! Pammie: Are you crying??? me: No 😭 Pammie: (trying to make me feel better) I think that was a raccoon… me: But I like raccoons 😭😭😭
After the stroke, I was staying at my sister’s and Christine came by to walk with me. I was still rebuilding my stamina, so we paused on the way back at a bench around the corner. This big ass raccoon came out of nowhere. He looked like Rick from Shirt Tales, and I’m pretty sure he waved at me. I’ve never seen Christine run so fast 😂
Sometimes when I’m sad (all the time), I make myself sadder by watching this video of a raccoon trying to eat cotton candy:
Also, on this one episode of Chopped, one of the secret basket ingredients was a whole ass suckling goat, and when they took that baby goat out of the basket, I changed the channel and cried LOL. I still think about it from time to time and get misty eyed.
It was Nori’s dog Kona’s birthday over the weekend, so I brought her some toys. She loved them all, especially the piñata stuffie 🥰
Nori’s icon status at Nordstrom, so she invited me to join her for a complimentary dinner at Ruscello. We were treated like celebrities LOL!
We were able to find primo parking at South Coast Plaza with my handicap placard, and her mom and sister were like, ‘You’re invited to go out with us anytime!” 😆
Her mom gave me one of her long ass shoe horns when she saw me struggling to put on my shoes 😅 They make slipping on my Vans a breeze 👵🏻
You have a secret lover for five years and no one ever lets you forget it 😅
My dog friends:
My sister and her husband are vacationing in Hawaii for the week. Partly because I didn’t want to schlep all my work shit to my parents’ house (I have to bring my gigantic work-issued desktop, because IT won’t let us access the server from our personal laptops anymore), but mostly because I’m a grown ass woman who doesn’t need supervision, I’m staying at my sister’s house by myself.
No secret lovers here! But I will be walking around in my chonies 😜
I went to a party yesterday, and spent most of my time with this sweet boy. He’s 14-years-old, scared of stairs because he slipped and fell down some last year, and somebody spilled spaghetti on his fur at the party 🤣
Chel sent me this post earlier this morning and then I sent her the same post when I saw it closer to the afternoon. I never got a notification that she sent me the same post because I have my ‘do not disturb’ on at such an unholy hour 😅
After Chel sent me this photo of this stray cat she took in, I sent her a gabillion IG reels of cute cats. She was like, ‘Ok whyyy do you have so many cat videos at your disposal? 🤣’ I follow a lot of animals on instagram, and bookmark a lot of cat videos, and now I can finally share them with someone! Yes, I’ve already invited her to do kitten yoga.
My favorite cat on instagram is named Francis. He’s 13, but he still looks like a kitten because he has dwarfism 🥹 You’re welcome 😽
Got my steps in bright and early and walked to Casa de Otay for my iced Mexican mocha. We ran into Bruce Wayne, my favorite frenchie ever, and he wanted all the cuddles this morning. I even saw Thierry Henry (my favorite German shep) and Lucille (my favorite doodle). It’s only 9am, and I’ve had a great morning so far 🤎
Not to be dramatic or anything, but today was the best day of my life (@ Spirit Yoga Studios)
I was like, ‘If one of these puppies falls asleep on me during savasana, I’m gonna have to adopt him.’ I don’t make the rules ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I can only do yoga now if puppies are involved.
I can’t remember the last time I was in PB… to get a brazilian wax at Viva Brazil? To drink Adios, Motherfuckers at PB Bar & Grill? To party with Jesse and his friends when he still lived in PB, crash on his couch, and get offered coffee and ketchup packets in the morning?
Sometimes, I forget how nice San Diego and SoCal really is. I def take the beach for granted. My apartment in LA is on Manhattan Beach Boulevard, literally 2 miles from the beach, and I never go.
Here’s to more puppies and more beaches in the future 🐶🌴
Our catalog comps were pushed a few days, so I took a nap this afternoon, and had the weirdest dream. A groomer was calling me to confirm the address to drop my dogs off at. He says my ex-boyfriend’s old address, so I call my ex like WTF? And he tells me we’re married with two dogs.
I woke up, because my sister texted me that she saw Lucille (my favorite dog) on her balcony outside.
Donna was telling us how she had the famous turtle soup at Commander’s Palace in New Orleans, and she told her friend (who loves turtles), and her husband was like, “Why would you tell her that?” and she was like, “Because the name of the dish is cute. Turtle soup.” And he was like, “You just told your friend who loves turtles that you just ate turtles.” She was like, “No, I didn’t. The description didn’t mention turtles. It said, ‘The authentic Louisiana favorite with veal fond, egg and crushed lemon. Finished tableside with a splash of aged sherry.’ I thought I was eating veal.” #1 I would never eat veal (I don’t eat baby animals LOL) and #2 it says ‘turtle’ in the name! She was like, “A lot of dishes have animals in the name, and doesn’t contain those animals.” I was like, “Name one dish.” And she couldn’t think of any 😂
A few people sent me this reel of this new BBQ spot in OC. It looks so good, but I haven’t had BBQ since it made me sick in NYC my birthday weekend 😅 I wanted to check Peg Leg Porker off my BBQ Bucket List in Nashville next weekend, but I don’t want to ruin the trip by getting sick again…
A few people also sent me this reel of this Corgi Cafe in the Philippines. Do my friends know me or what??? Also, I need that corgi butt bread.
I’ve always heard that “heaven is a place where all the dogs you have ever loved run to greet you.” IDK if that’s true or if I’m even headed to heaven LOL, but it’s a nice thought. Today, my aunt put her last pup down. I looked after her when her moms went on vacation, and she was the sweetest girl.
I hope she’s in doggy heaven playing with Rocky and Myko in the matching Baja Ponchos I got them for Christmas 🥹
The dog my parents are watching has grown super attached to my dad. My dad says it’s because he’s a boy, but I think it’s because he gives him pupperoni treats. Here he is waiting for my dad outside the bathroom 😆
My sister is in Vegas again, so I’m at my parents’ house cuddling with this good boi and I’ve already burned 2 bags of popcorn in the microwave. Feels like the holidays.
My parents are dogsitting while my aunt and uncle are in Paris for Thanksgiving, so this sad boi is my roommate for the next week (he misses his pawrents).
My sister’s in OC for work, then she has to go into the office three times next week, then she’s going to Vegas for her anniversary and F1. So I’ll just be here at my parents’ house on squirrel watch till Thanksgiving ✌🏼
Whenever I see a stroller in my sister’s neighborhood I’m like, “Child or dog?” (I always hope it’s a dog). Today, Pammie was like, “Neither. It’s a bunny!” 😅 I can’t with this neighborhood.
My parents are in France right now, and instead of sending us pics of delicious food they’re eating and beautiful sights they’re seeing, my mom is sending us pics of the dogs she’s meeting. This is my future LOL (JK, I’m already like this).
I usually see this dog on my walk (who I call “Thierry Henry,” after the French pundit on Ted Lasso), but he’s always perched on the 2nd floor balcony. I looked for him up there, but today he was staring at me through the window in the front door 🤣
Yesterday, I ran into Chico on my walk, and learned his name is actually Tharu! The owner’s sister was walking him and didn’t know why her brother named him “Tharu” or what it meant. I looked it up, and according to wikipedia, Tharu is an ethnic group indigenous to southern Nepal and northern India (or a Volkswagen Taos in China). His family is Latino, so I doubt it means any of those things. I like “Chico” better, so I’m gonna keep calling him that behind his back. Whenever I ask my sister’s husband if he’s seen Chico (every day), he tells me to please get my own dog LOL.
This fenced off spot reminds me of the infinite abyss from Garden State. There’s so much tumbleweed around here for some reason.
I hate vanity plates, but I love pizza, so I’m torn.
I’ve seen these heart balloons in this window since Valentine’s Day… It’s May.
I name all the dogs I see regularly on my walks. I see this sweet girl almost every day, and I call her “Lucy” (“Lucille” when we’re being formal). I’ve never heard her bark.
There’s this asshole dog who always barks whenever he sees me. I call him “David” after David Bogdanov, a convicted murderer I watched a docu of on ID who fled to Ukraine after he killed a trans teen (the dog’s pawrents have a Ukrainian flag on their balcony LOL).
With a lot of great dogs, comes a great lot of poop. These little flags are everywhere.
I got a tiny picnic table for the squirrels who visit my parents’ backyard, and my mom texting me pics of them eating and enjoying the view has been the highlight of my day.
We scored a ton of free swag for Rocky and my aunt’s sweet dog who we brought along, but I’m paying for it with a serious auto detail. There’s dog fur in places I didn’t know there could be dog fur!
We’re bringing some bags of beer bones to the walk this Saturday if you’d like to meet us at the finish line… otherwise known as mile 2! Ha. Don’t judge us!
Did you donate because of the animals or because of my cute packaging, be honest.
I’ve reached 70% of my fundraising goal! Help me get to 100% HERE and receive a bag of these homemade beer bones (they’re dog tested and Rocky approved, if that helps sway you at all).
Make a donation of $10 or more to sponsor my participation in San Diego Humane Society’s Walk for Animals and receive a bag of homemade beer bones made with repurposed spent grain locally sourced and generously donated by LA craft brewery, Progress Brewing!
You can donate HERE. Please put your address in the “Personal Note to Walk Participant” field if you want dog treats. If you’re in LA or SD, I can probably just meet up with you 🙂
I battle my obvious love of dogs on a daily basis.
I can’t watch a cute puppy video on youtube without clicking on all the related videos. Next thing I know, I’ve lost three hours of my life watching 103 videos in a puppy surprise playlist and have been crying for at least two of those hours. Just kidding. (I cried for all three.)
When Pammie asked if I wanted to do a walk for animals, I immediately said yes without knowing any details other than dogs were somehow involved. Her office organizes this huge fundraiser that includes a bake sale where homemade dog treats are sold for donations, and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to combine my love for dogs with my love for baking and get involved.
I reached out to some local LA craft breweries, and Progress Brewing in El Monte was generous enough to donate some spent brewing grain towards my cause. I drove out to what the dude described as “east of east los” with nothing but a 5-gallon bucket and a friend to witness my death in case the dude chopped me up into little pieces and dumped my body in the mash tun (I did meet him on the internet, after all).
Kevin, the co-owner of Progress Brewing, was actually a really nice guy. He asked if I preferred “Black IPA” or “American Red” doggy biscuits! Ha. I went with American Red, obvi, since I’m not a fan of IPAs. Dogs are also allergic to hops, so if you’re going to repurpose spent grain, make sure the brewery didn’t mash hop the batch you’re getting.
It’s best to use the spent grains within the first few days after brewing, otherwise they’ll go bad. I used a FoodSaver and froze them in portion-sized bags for storing and later use, since they gave me around 40 pounds of grain.
Here’s a simple, all-natural recipe if you want to try making these at home:
Ingredients:
4 cups spent grain
2 cups organic barley flour
1 cup natural peanut butter
2 organic eggs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all of the ingredients and mix with your hands until a thick dough forms. Roll out the dough on a generously floured surface and cut out shapes with cookie cutters like this cute dog bone.
Line the biscuits on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, then reduce temperature to 225 degrees and continue baking for 2 hours. Cooking them the additional time at the lower temperature will help ensure they dry completely, extending their shelf life.
The dried biscuits will keep for 2 weeks in an airtight container and even longer if you freeze them in zipper bags. You can give them to your dogs straight from the freezer as a cool summer treat, or, if you’re in LA, in the dead of winter when it’s 90 degrees out!
Rocky’s doggy stairs have been out in the hall since he doesn’t need them to get on the bed anymore. I think he just uses them to stare at himself in the mirror now.
When we were at Chike’s place in SF, I noticed a calendar in his kitchen with corgis on it. Please tell me every month of this calendar is corgis, I said… AND IT WAS.
Because of his love for weird socks and his shared obsession with corgis, we sent him these awesome socks as a thank you for being such a good host:
And today, he sent me this video:
Cuteness overload. I’m officially dead. Please invite this corgi to my funeral!
Outta my way, kids! Upside down animals are only my favoritest thing in the world.
It’s been 21 years since I last went to SeaWorld in the fifth grade (do the horrifying math). Yesterday, I went back there with the BFF and her kiddos, and the only souvenir I took home was this walrus photo and a fierce sunburn.
I usually try to go hard on my days off, but I just ended up going to the DMV, having brunch at The Mission, playing with my favorite frenchie, and calling it a night at 9:30. What has my life come to?
Marion, I just stumbled upon your blog last night and spent hours reading all of your past entries up to 2007. I just couldn’t stop! You’re so incredibly witty. I’m sorry if I come off like a creepster, but I just thought that I would let you know that your blog brings a smile to my face.
Thanks, Min! 🙂 I read on your blog that your dog smells distinctly like Fritos, and I was just telling Rocky last night that he smelled like corn chips (a sign we were meant to cross paths, obvi).
I’m sick in bed and googling pictures of kittens while listening to country music. I’m like an old white lady. Except I’m twenty something. And Asian. And hardly a lady, depending on who you ask.
Hi love… I saw this pic and thought of you. Since you were all about those upside down animals in your blog. And this dog TOTALLY reminded me of you. I mean… how many times have I seen you in this position anyway? In your short shorts that might as well be underwear!? Hahhaha =)
#1 How dare you? Shorts, by definition, are short! It’s in the name.
#2 I’m totally in this position right now as I type this in my underwear.
This really did cheer me up today 🙂 Thanks, babeway ♥
After a particularly shitty afternoon, these upside down animals really turn my day around. Seriously, what has my life come to? Off to the gym to de-stress.
