I Heart Rockband!

This last weekend Sam and I made a little trip over to Spokane and spent some quality time with Ben & Kim, and Ryan & Christy. Among the highlights of our trip was going over to "Barber Harbor" and playing some "Rockband".

For those of you who don't know what "Rockband" is (is there anyone?) it's a spin off from "Guitar Hero" that adds the drums and a lead singer (could I use anymore "quotations"??). So, basically, you get three people together and make a band. This weekend the greatest band of all time was formed. Too bad we had to break up after about 2 hours. We were starting to lose touch with the original intent of the band.

At least some pretty good pics were taken while it lasted.

PS: Don't knock it til you try it.

Portion Control, Schmortion Control!

I love that my husband can eat 6x my daily food intake and then get on the scale the next day and say, "What? Down a pound?? Better up the eating!!"

Who said life was fair?

Oh, and in case you're wondering what the ginormous bowl is holding, it is Sam's nutritious after-church-snack of Chocolatey Marshmallow Mateys! I know... we didn't know they existed either!

Needless to say, the bag only lasted 2 days.

My "Me Mosaic"

K, this was actually pretty fun to do. I will admit that I cheated a bit and didn't always use the very first picture returned from the search, due to either inappropriate content, the picture didn't work, or simply because I didn't like the picture! So here ya go, learn about ME!

The Concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your nickname.

The Answers:
1. Amy
2. Anything BBQ.
3. Washington State University
4. Blue... but really I don't ever buy blue clothes or decorate with blue, so I don't know why it's my favorite color. Maybe cuz I like blue water and blue skies?
5. Joel McHale! I heart The Soup.
6. Chocolate oreo or chocolate peanut butter milkshakes.
7. Sydney, Australia... going in November!
8. Chocolate cake.
9. an Ecologist... oh wait, I am one!
10. my husband :)
11. Laidback (yes, it is one word thank you very much!)
12. Amy Wang. If you don't know the origins of this one, you're gonna have to ask.

Saga of the Cell Phones...

This week has been absolutely ridiculous. Many of you received a text from me on Sunday (or Monday?) with a new cell phone number. That number is no longer accurate and the service has been canceled! Why you ask? Well, thus begins the subject of today's post...

Cell Phone Service #1 - SPRINT

Sam and I have never been entirely happy with Sprint. The phones stink, customer service is subpar, and well, we were just ready for a change. Our 2 year contract expires next week so we began exploring our options. We did some pretty serious comparison shopping and were bound and determined to get the best deal. On Saturday we thought we had done just that.

Cell Phone Service #2 - T-Mobile

We signed up with T-Mobile through Costco and got the smallest shared plan we could find (we used to have 300 shared mins, and never went over that) so we thought "Hey, let's go with the smallest and cheapest plan we could find." Plus, Bonus! Free Blackberries! Sam got a very cool black one, and I got a matching red one and we set off with what we thought were the best phones, best rate plan, and a pretty cool internet package. We went home and spent the weekend updating our address books, chatting with friends on the Yahoo! IM feature, surfing the web, and feeling pretty dang cool. Then comes Monday and we go to work. I sit at my desk to start my day and think, wow, sure is cool to have a new phone. Maybe I'll send an email from my phone since I have all these new features. And what do I see, but a big red "X" where all my reception bars should be. No Service. Ah man, I was heartbroken. I jump up and start asking everyone around me what cell service they had. Verizon, verizon, verizon, and... T-Mobile! I asked this lady if she gets service and she says, nope, only outside and she's switching to Verizon next month. Ok... I guess Verizon must be the way to go then, right? I get a 17% discount for being a state employee and everyone in my office has it. How can we go wrong??

(*Side note: I forgot to mention that the geniuses at T-Mobile gave us long distance Bellingham numbers! I realized that when I tried to make a local call to Sam from home and it told me a "1" was required! So much for changing our eastern WA 509 numbers to 360's! Shoulda known it was doomed from the start.)

Cell Phone Service #3 - Verizon

We did our research and realized plans with Verizon were going to be the same price and the network was much better. We weren't going to get free phones, but they were still going to be the next generation Blackberries with a much faster internet connection and lots of other cool new features. Worth $50 each. We stop by Verizon on our way home from work on Tuesday, talk it over with the salesguy and feel like this is the way to go. We would cancel T-Mobile tomorrow (we got a 14 day trial period) and live happily ever after with our newer and cuter (note that mine was super cute pink!) Blackberries and put our T-Mobile days behind us. Good job to you Amy and Sam. We left Verizon feeling pretty dang good about our choice. Nevermind that we have THREE cell phones in our pockets from THREE DIFFERENT SERVICES!! Now, that wonderful feeling would have lasted a good long time if we had never had to go home. Oh yes. We get home and I notice that the phone is telling us we're not getting the best possible signal. In fact, we're not getting signal enough to pick up the internet. That's weird. We start making phone calls and they're not getting through! We call from our home phone and the phones don't ring. We finally get connected and start walking throughout the house saying, "Can you hear me now?" from various spots in the house. Long story short, it was impossible to talk to one another while both on our cell phones and the calls were dropped more than once. No service at our house. I call customer service and they confirm my fears... "You live in a known dead spot and we don't see any fix for it within the next 2 years." Great.

Flash forward to today. We are conceding to what our good friend Ryan has been trying to sell on us from the very start:

Cell Phone Service #4 - AT&T

Yes, this is it. The big Kahuna. We're doing it. The iPhone. It's a much larger up front cost and they don't exactly give these puppies away with new activation. But you know what? This is the pedicure after the end of a hard day. The hot bubble bath after a rough day of work. The ice cream at the end of my emotional break down. It's the same monthly price as what we would pay for T-Mobile and Verizon, and you get oh-so-much-more. We'll be able to surf the net and feel like we're actually surfing the net. In other words, we'll be getting what we pay for. As far as reception goes, I've called AT&T and they say there is a tower less than a mile from our house and service should be great. I'm crossing my fingers. I work with a lady that has AT&T and she loves it. But there is one hitch. I couldn't get reception with her phone at my desk, and you know what? I've given up! I don't care anymore!! Just give me a phone that will work other than the place where I really don't need to be using a cell phone (I am a state worker you know, and I need to be productive on taxpayer time, mind you!).

There is hope though. The new iPhones operate on a 3G network which is much stronger than the previous 2G networks. There is a chance that this phone will pick up reception where the ladies phone drops off... aka: my desk. She gets it everywhere else at Ecology, but all bars die when she steps into my section. More confirmation that I work in a black hole.

Long story short (too late), we're getting iPhones and it will be glorious. Don't tell me otherwise because I don't want to hear it. I've been sold, we've made up our minds and we're sticking to it. I just hope AT&T offers a 30 day trial period as well...

Memory Game

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Get it...?? Elephants have good memories, duh!!

Dominoe - We miss you!

Ok, so today has been hard. Why lie about it?? We got out of the house yesterday and spent some time in the 'Couve w/ Jodi and Jason. That was probably a good thing. However, a quiet Sunday afternoon in the house which has historically been Sam, Amy, and Dominoe family time has been rough. No little dog going in and out of the house with Sam while he BBQs, no dog curled up at the foot of the couch during our family nap, and no Sunday evening walk. We miss him a lot! We just keep telling ourselves, he is in a much better place. Isn't it amazing though, how quickly we forget all the bad things? I even thought to myself today, was cleaning up his messes 6 times a day really that bad? Yeah, it was... considering it was occurring because it was either too painful for him to stand up and go to the door, or because he had just plain lost neurological function of his hind end. It was for the best.

Let me just tell you guys... enjoy what you have!! You will not realize how much you love something until it's gone. Really. All the good times really make the hard times worth it. Definitely. Don't set yourself up for a situation where you wonder, "did I give everything I could have??" Cliche, but true.

To everyone that has left comments, sent emails, given phone calls, or drawn pictures and sent them in the mail ( - Thanks Jodi & Briannda ;) it is truly appreciated. Even though his little presence will be missed for a good long time, I know every day will get easier. We'll realize a bit of freedom that comes with not having a dog for a while, and when the time is right... we'll find another little furry friend to bless our lives. We're really trying to focus on how fun he was to have and celebrate his life. That's much more fun to think about!! I mean, I had this dog since I was 12! He had been through so much with me and just absolutely loved us unconditionally right up to the end.

Before we left the hospital, we took some prints of his little paws. I am so happy my sister Heidi helped me come up with the idea because I love this little piece of him that is left with us in the house. I'm not quite sure what we're going to do with them just yet... I think we'll probably put them in a frame with a picture and his little "Dominoe" dog tag and find somewhere we can put it up.

Seeing these little feet make me so happy! I guess Alfred Lord Tennyson (yes, I looked it up!) knew what he was talking about when he said, "'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."

We love you and will miss you Dominoe!

A rough day ahead.

Well, there are many of you reading this who have had the privilege of making the acquaintance of my little spotted friend, Dominoe. Unfortunately, he's gotten pretty old and life isn't so fun for him anymore. We think he's in a lot of pain, although he doesn't really show it. But I reckon that hardly being able to walk and falling when you try to run just can't be a good time. He's pretty much lost all control of his bodily functions which makes living with him pretty hard, but what he lacks in cleanliness he makes up for in personality and love. I think that's what's gotten him this far. This dog has the biggest heart in the whole world... He's gotta be in a whole lot of pain, but he would never let us know it. He still makes his crazy "Chewbacca" sounds when we come home, and wants to be nowhere else except exactly where we are. Even as I type this, he's curled up at my feet not having any idea where he's getting loaded up in the car to go do in about 1/2 an hour.

Our appointment with the vet is at noon today, and it's not gonna be easy. For us, anyways. I know how peaceful and painless it is for the dogs but our pain doesn't go away near that fast. It's gonna be much much harder on us than him. That selfishness is also probably what kept him alive this long... why have we kept him alive this long to be in pain when he walks, when I'm sure he'd much rather be running? He can barely make it down the stairs off the back porch to go do his chores without falling. But every night after his 7:30 dinner, he's standing at the front door waiting to go on his walk.

He's given me 13 amazing years... that's more of my life with him than without. I got him when I was 12, and he was my 4H dog for 4 years. He's always been such a show stopper, and everyone stops to look at and pet the Dalmatian. He takes it all in stride... it's just another day of being a gorgeous dog. He's given us so much unconditional love, and I couldn't ask for any more loyalty out of anyone. I know he's going to a much better place, where he can run and jump again and play with Kody, Lucky, and Barry.

Ok, I've got to go... thanks for the support everyone, we definitely know he's in a better place and I am already excited for him to find his running legs again!

-Amy

Dominoe
1995-2008