Mochi the giant shih tzu

So Mochi was scratching his ears. I took him to the vet. He has an ear infection. Poor kid. But what was even more astounding was his weight. He weighs 15 lbs and he's only 6 months old. He was only suppose to be 12 lbs total. The vet thinks he could be as much as 20-25 lbs full grown. She says to me, "We have 1 or 2 other GIANT Shih Tzus that come in." WTF?! Mochi is a giant!

What have I been doing lately?

Well that's an excellent question.

Let's see, since our last blog update.....we've successfully painted 1 wall in the bathroom and 1/3 of a wall in the kitchen.


































So it looks a lot greener than it really is. I mean, it's green...but a little more muted than the picture makes it out to be. Nick picked it.

I've also honed my cake decorating skills. Caresse and I made Tyler (Caresse's boyfriend) a cake for his birthday. It was our first attempt using fondant. While it is no Ace of Cakes, I think I see a future for us in cake decorating :-) I can see it now....Bryn, Cake Decorator, Hair Dresser Extraordinaire.















And what blog experience would be complete without an update in the life of Mochi McMocherson.

Here he is eating a treat.

"Muhaha....I will get you!"














"Gnnaaa, got you sucka!"















"Victory"














"Hey, what are you lookin at?"

The cutest hiking dog EVER

Nick and I climbed a portion of Mt. Diablo last weekend! I know what you're thinking....Bryn doesn't like that sort of thing...she prefers running water and shopping. Well the California weather has gotten the best of me and I was ready for a hike.

Let me first preface this story with a story of my first hike EVER. Some grad school guys wanted to go for a hike. Since I was familiar with the area I offered up some suggestions - Tiger Mountain being one of them. So they of course invited me along....and not wanting to seen lame and out of shape, I happily accompanied them on this "hike." We arrived at Tiger Mountain but couldn't find the "easy" trailhead (that's hiking lingo for "the start of the trail"). So the boys decided we would just walk straight up the mountain. It was awesome, and by awesome, I mean sucky. It was like doing stairs for 2 hours and not resting - my calves, thighs and butt were BURNING. Anyways, by the time it was all over I hated hiking.

So back to mt. diablo. We this hike was much better. The scenery was awesome and the weather was perfect. Instead of hiking straight up, we sort of criss crossed. Anyways, we took Mochi so he could get some fresh air. He made it all the way!

Here are a few pics of the hike.

Nick and Mochi at the summit. It's an awesome view....but it's kind of discouraging. You can drive all the way to the top :-( Oh well.















Mochi was an excellent walker.....




















But he took every opportunity to rest.























































One of the more interesting sights on our hike....a unicycler. He was cycling UP the mountain. And what's even crazier is that we saw 4 of them - all at separate times. Not sure if there was a unicycling convention going on or what....but definitely a sight!

Work has been pretty busy so I don't have too much to report.

Mochi's hair has grown out nicely.














He has also learned how to fetch.

Nick was gone for a few days and mochi missed him.














Nick loves mochi.

And one more picture of mochi after he stole the toilet paper roll.















I had an interesting thought the other day. Nick and I went to see Juno. The whole time I'm thinking "man this girl looks familiar." She was in X-men! So then I got to thinking, X-men has a lot of oscar ties. Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin and now Ellen Page. I love x-men and nick has never even seen one of them!

I'm addicted to the crate and barrel outlet in berkeley. If you come and visit me I'll take you there.

Amy Winehouse just won a grammy for "rehab"....ironic.

I'm trying to decorate the condo but it's really not that easy. These walls are really big and I have too many different colors of wood.

It was sunny and 70 today. I love california.

Squaw

Nick and I spent MLK weekend in Reno! We stayed with some friends and were able to do some skiing up at Squaw.
















Are those olympic rings you ask? Why yes they are. Squaw valley was home to the 1960 winter olympics. I tried channeling Picabo, but I don't think it helped.

Here is nick. He's down at my level temporarily. Much easier to breathe at this lower altitude. I also got a cute new hat that matches my jacket. And yes, it was entirely necessary.














If you are wondering about mochi. He was in ski school. It took him the better part of the morning but he picked it up by lunch.

J/K! He spent the weekend at Club K9. Doggie daycare. He played with all sorts of other dogs and told me he had a great time.

Haircut!

Anyone who met Mochi over Christmas noticed his awfully long hair. He really couldn't see. So it was time for him to get groomed. He won't let me get in his face (we're working on it), so I figured I'd let a professional take care of it.

Here he is before:














After (I think it was too short, but hey, hair grows):
















I think it was ust weird because I could see his eyes for the first time in 2 months. We arrived at the groomer and she had put 2 blue ribbons in his hair (um, he's a boy.....you trimmed his balls, you should know).

And here is a funny video of mochi chasing his bowl. (You can stop after he does the cute bowl thing.)

Happy New Year!

The blog sort of died after my birthday. So this year one of my new years resolution will be to maintain a better blog. So in the spirit of new years, let me recap 2007:

January
I moved to Pleasanton, CA to start work at Sandia National Laboratories.

February
I went to Albuquerque and Anthony came to visit...and I received the most AWESOME piece of mail from the boys. Our belated Christmas card:










March
March was a crazy month. Nick moved to California and both Beth and Stacey came to visit me!











April
We successfully locate and purchase a Nintendo Wii, Nick and I decide to buy a condo and the DMV lady thinks I'm 15 years old.











May
Mom came to visit. We saw Jersey Boys. Nick and I went to puerto vallarta. No pictures were taken in the month of may.

June
Went to Tahoe with Nick (and the Ford folks). Nick's stuff FINALLY arrived from Atlanta.

July
Still no pics. But we went home for the 4th of July. Dad came to visit. Work got a little crazy.

August
I turned 24 and had to work on my birthday (for the first time EVER). Lisa got married in Napa! Awesome wedding! Melinda, Hannah and I went to Las Vegas with Beth for a mini-bachelorette party.


































September
Nick turned the big 2-5. He spent his birthday in Detroit. Beth got married. Beautiful wedding with very beautiful hair












October
Mochi!















November
Thanksgiving and more Mochi! We had 4 friends over for Thanksgiving dinner....and I think we made food for about 10.














December
Busy busy. We drove back to Seattle, celebrated Christmas and then drove back to California (the puppy was invplved in all of the above).






"OMG, I'm so excited to go to Seattle"








Mochi meets Stacey!











"I'm so stinkin cute in my sweatshirt!"











Christmas pic with Mochi and Santa.












The drive home.



























Happy New Year!