new facebook page!

New Facebook page for the pups! Please feel free to visit and Like my new page.

road trips with a pup

The bf will be driving both of our pups from San Francisco to Portland this weekend to join me at my cousins wedding and to visit his family. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) my mom booked my flight with hers online months before the bf planned to come along and the cancellation fee is almost as much as the ticket so I will not be joining him.

Even though I am not going on this road trip I wanted to offer my tips on traveling with a pup since I have done it before and I am sure others will be bringing their pups along on vacation this summer.

Here are a few of the things I have learned to do:

1. Exhaust your pup. Take your dog on the longest walk possible before you leave. Seriously. The last thing you want is an anxious/excited/energetic dog sitting with you in the car for hours on end. Not only is it stressful for you but your dog will be stressed out too.

2. Bring lots of chewies. To keep your dog tired and entertained buy a lot of chew toys before the trip. I usually go to Pet Food Express because they have sales like buy 3 get 1 free. On my last trip from SF to LA I bought 4 pigs ears and 4 new bully sticks and that amount lasted Reggie the whole trip. You don't want to run out though so make sure to buy enough for your dog.

3. Toys! Buy a few new toys for the trip and bring your dogs old favorites. This way they feel comfortable and have something to look forward to on the trip. This is also important when you reach your destination so they feel more at home.

4. Bring the bed. Whatever your dog sleeps on/in bring it with you on the trip. Again, you want your dog to feel comfortable in the car and they like what is familiar to them. This is also good to get them to sleep in new places.

5. Pack water and food. Bring 2-3 bottles of water and a bowl for your dog to drink when he gets thirsty. Reggie gets really thirsty when he chews on pig's ears so I am constantly filling up his bowl in the car to keep him hydrated. Whenever you run out of water stop at a fast food place or gas station and make sure you refill old water bottles.

6. Take lots of breaks. Reggie tends to get a little anxious in the car about every two hours. The best advice I have is to stop when your dog starts pacing, breathing heavy, or gets anxious and take a 5 minute break. Walk them around outside, give them some water and a small amount of food. Even a quick break will help rejuvenate your dog and get them to calm down.

7. NEVER leave your dog in the car for extended time. I found this chart the other day that tells you how hot your car gets with the different temperatures outside. Your dog could die of heat exhaustion especially in the summer so it is best to bring them with you when you leave the car.

8. Safety first. Make sure your dog is safe inside of your vehicle. You can read online the safest ways to travel with your dog. Also, research about your dogs breed and the location you are going. Do you need to take extra precautions because you have a frenchie that overheats easily? Are you going to an area with a lot of fox-tails? Look up the local vet where you will be staying in case something happens. Reggie got into a bottle of baby aspirin my grandma dropped on the floor the last trip we took him on. He was okay but I had a hard time finding a local vet that was open.

9. Dog friendly places. There are a lot of great websites that offer dog friendly places while traveling. My favorite is BringFido.com. It is good to do your research ahead of time so you know where you can stay and what activities are dog friendly.

10. Have fun with your pup!!!

in darkness a light shines

A woman finds her dog during an interview. Heartbreaking and wonderful.

This is one of my favorite quotes from the band MeWithOutYou and I love it because it is so true. Even in the darkest times there is a glimmer of hope, a light that shines.

I am so sad for the people of Oklahoma and truly hope their light starts to get a little brighter.

bay to breakers

For those of you who are not from the SF Bay Area, Bay to Breakers is an annual 7 mile race where people run from the Bay all the way to the water (breakers). Some people take this race seriously and run it for time, while others dress up in costumes and day drink all day walking only a part of the race. For a hilarious description of Bay to Breakers check out The Hotness Your Momma Warned You About and read her post Bay to Broken.

I have participated in B2B three times since I have lived in San Francisco and I love it! Sure, it's a hot drunken mess, but if you do it right you will have a good time. I don't usually drink too much or party too hard so I am fine at the end of the event, but there are tons of people who over-do-it and end up passed out on someones lawn or crying that they don't know where they are. Don't be this person, and you will have a good time :)

This year, I am going with the same group I went with last year and we are all dressing up in tie dye. Some of the costumes are way more creative than this and a lot of people do group costumes. You should Google it to see some of the ridiculous costumes. Oh yea, and a lot of people go naked....(sorry, no pics haha)

If you haven't gone before, and you happen to be in the SF area, you should totally go this weekend. It's a great experience and even if it's not your style it is worth it to do one time. Just remember to wear a fun costume :)

frenchie friday

my perfect day in san francisco

I applied to be a San Francisco Ambassador and the writing assignment was to write about your perfect 49 hours in San Francisco. I changed my answer to be "my perfect day in San Francisco" and thought you guys might like to see what I had to say on the blog. It's nothing too exciting or out of the ordinary, in fact I have this day quite often, but it really truly is what makes me happy.

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The perfect day in San Francisco would start on Saturday with my pup waking me up at 6:00am ready for his morning walk. I quickly throw on a sweatshirt because it is foggy and cold outside on this early morning. I walk around the block and enjoy the odd silence in the neighborhood only broken by the sound of the cable car that passes by. I head towards Polk Street to grab a coffee at one of the many coffee shops in the area and then head home to get ready for the day. My boyfriend and I decide to go to breakfast in the Marina before the weekend crowd starts to wake up and fill the restaurants that line Union Street.

After a nice meal with lattes and delicious food (San Francisco has the best food) we round up our two French bulldogs and head out to a Frenchie MeetUp group at the Mission Creek Dog Park in SOMA. There are about 20 other dogs at the MeetUp and all of the owners stand around chatting while our dogs play for the next few hours. The weather gets a little warmer and the dogs are tired so we take them home and go to lunch at Ramen Underground in the Financial District. We sit at a cramped table inside of this tiny place and order Miso Ramen with pork belly and make our plans for the rest of the day.

Lunch ends and because it is beautiful outside we walk to Union Square to do a little shopping. I head to the Zara on Post street, it’s much better than the one on Market, and my boyfriend heads over to Banana Republic. Once we have gotten our fill of window shopping we go home to take a nap with our pups before we head out again for the night.

One of my girlfriends calls me up and suggests we do dinner and drinks in the Mission and she gathers a group of girls to start the night off.  At dinner we enjoy our food and wine and catch up on all the new things in our lives. It’s nice to be able to relax and take our time since we all have such busy schedules during the week. When the food is gone we continue to hop around to a few of our favorite places like the Homestead or Southern PacificBrewing for a couple more drinks before we meet up with all of our boyfriends. The guys are ready for the night when we all meet up so I suggest we head to Butterto go dancing and the group agrees.

Butter is really hit or miss but thankfully tonight, the place is packed and they are playing all of our favorite music from the 90’s. We order our 40oz beers and mixed drinks in mason jars and dance around the bar until closing time. Bouncers kick everyone out and we all go our separate ways to the Panhandle, Nob Hill, Marina, North Beach or whatever place we are calling home for the night. 

My boyfriend and I asked to be dropped off on Polk Street so we can buy a streetdog (hotdog wrapped in bacon) and walk the rest of the way home. The streets are crawling with people and we can’t help but laugh that so many people are walking around at this time. 

Once we get back to my boyfriend’s apartment in the Marina we are greeted by two sleepy French Bulldogs. We take them for one last quiet walk in the fog that rolled back in for the night, and then we all go to bed.

a beautiful mess app

Have you guys seen the new A Beautiful Mess app for the iPhone? If you haven't, please go download it as soon as you get off of work today- don't do it at work though, you won't get anything done :)

A Beautiful Mess announced the new app the other day and since then I have been spending way too much time decorating my favorite pictures on my phone. It's really easy to use and I can honestly say it's my new favorite photo editing tool on my phone. I will apologize in advance to my Instagram followers for posting even more pictures of my dogs now that I have this cute little app!

first running update and my love of FitBit

I had my first week of training for my full marathon last week and over all it went well. I only ran once but I did my TRX training twice and ran 3 miles instead of two. I was pretty sore after running the 3 miles but walking Reggie the next few days really helped my legs from getting too tight.

There is one thing I wanted to talk about that really helps me when I am training for a race- my FitBit! I got my first FitBit Ultra about 2 years ago when my brother started working for the company. It's a tracker that clips on to your clothes and records your steps, mileage, calories, etc. My brother gave me the newer model for my birthday last year, the FitBit One, and I like this one so much more. I find that it is really accurate and easy to use.

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If you are training for any race, I highly suggest you buy a FitBit to help your keep track of your distance and time. It's super small and all you have to do is clip it on your clothes before you leave and then you can check in to see how far you have run. Yesterday I went on a run and thought that I had hit the 1 mile mark but thanks to my FitBit I realized I had barely run 1/2 of a mile. It's nice to be able to look at it really quick and get all of your stats and then keep training.

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Have you guys tried using a FitBit before? What did you think?

happy monday

Happy Monday folks! 

I stole this picture from my bf because I love it and Pig just looks sooo darn happy. Enjoy!

26 miles in my 26th year

Two years ago one of my friends approached me and asked if I would run the Nike Women's Half Marathon with her in San Francisco. I originally declined but since they do a lottery drawing I figured that we probably would not get in the race so I agreed to sign up.

I’m sure you all can probably guess, but that didn't happen. We got in and I had two choices: lose the $150 I paid and not do the race or attempt to run a half marathon. I decided to bite the bullet and start training to run 13 miles.

It was really hard. I basically started out not even being able to run 1 mile to running 10 miles on the weekends. It took about 3 months of training and during that time I slowly started to love running- who knew? When the time came to run our half marathon, I did it! Very slowly, but I did it. After my first race I knew I wanted to run more. I loved the way I felt (and looked!) since becoming a runner so I signed up for a few more half marathons.

Running a full marathon was never something I was interested in doing, until one of my girlfriends suggested that we run a full marathon this year because we are both 26 years old - 26 miles in our 26th year. I knew she was joking but I also thought the idea sounded awesome. How cool would it be to run a full marathon!? I somehow convinced my running friends to actually do it with me so hopefully we will be able to get into the NWM 2013 and run our first full marathon!

Since I have never run more than 13 miles I looked up training schedules online and found one that fit my running style. I modified it a little to incorporate my summer vacations and include my TRX training instead of the suggested cross training and I came up with the schedule above.

I was thinking it would be fun to include a weekly update on my training and hopefully connect with others who are training for a race as well. It will also be a nice way to hold myself accountable and hopefully get some tips on running longer distances. My first day of training started on Monday so I will give you guys an update next week.

For the runners out there, any tips on running a full marathon?