Knick-Knack, Paddy Whack Give a Dog a Bone

Me and Bobo

The other night at around 9:30 pm (after hours for any vet) Bobo, one of my little furbabies started uncontrolablly shaking. I thought he might be having a seizure. So I wrapped him in one of his dog blankets and packed him up with the other 3 in the car. I knew things were not good for my little Bobo.

I headed for the vet and my mind started racing, as much as I wanted sugar plums to be dancing in my head there was no fancy fruit doing the jig -- instead there were just dollar signs jumping over fences and taunting my Greek little noggin.

Now for me, if any one of my 4 little canine babies get sick or need help I don't care what it costs, they are getting what they need, Stat. That's just how I roll.  They are more valuable to me than any amount of money in the world -- but at the same time, I just know what an after hours emergency vet visit would cost -- and that thought wasn't too far out of my mind either.

As we were driving around I noticed Bobo stopped shaking. In fact he even climbed from the front seat and had joined the ranks of the other 3 dogs in the back seat. Well this was certainly a positive sign I thought.

I decided to drive around a little bit more before I decided to help a veterinarian (I had never met)  put his kids through college. In all fairness to the vets out there, I realize your after hours prices are high to discourage people from calling them in the middle of the night for a case of doggie diarrhea. The the vet still has to get up and do a 12 hour day in the morning and then they will be on call again the next night! So guess I would charge high prices for emergency calls as well.

I was just giddy because Bobo was coming back to his normal self without the vet looking at him. Now this might be wrong for me to think like this -- but as we were driving around,  and with all 4 of the dogs seemed to be doing well - I realized the Greek Girl just saved about $300 - $400 by not actually having to go to the vet, thanks to Bobo's miraculous recovery.

So when I drove past Kohl's I fought a good fight, but the car won -- I (the car) pulled into Kohl's, left the dogs in the car with my Sweetie and went inside to check for any bargains. And no I wasn't on a sneaker hunting expedition this time -- just looking for any good old-fashioned Christmas sales.

45 minutes later, and with my wallet  $150 lighter I emerged from the store. Bobo and the dogs were all happy to see my return. They never know if and when I will return when I'm out shopping. In fact if the doggies could talk (well actually they can, but I will leave that for another blog at another time) I was saying, if the furbabies could talk they would have a nickname for me. They would call me "Ave the Great."  Yah, for all of the right reasons because I spoil the snot out of them, but also because I can do magic. Yep, I can walk down the street and within seconds I can turn into a mall.  Amazing!!! tap, tap hello is this thing on? Can anyone hear me?  Come on folks I'm using my A material here.

As I was driving home I tried to think what was behind Bobo's shaking episode. And then it dawned on me...he had been watching the Biggest Loser with me and there was a lot of screaming and yelling going on since it was the finale, I think all of the commotion spooked him.

When we all got home I was much relieved that it was all really much ado about nothing with Bobo - so I gave him his typical night-time dog bone, a hug and also gave him and extra set of Mommy kisses -- just to let him know how much he is loved.

Have you hugged your dog today?

Blessings,

Ava

xox

PS Don't forget the Christmas Bonus Buy on my CD's!! Only 3 Days left.

Melancholy

I'm kinda feeling a little melancholy as I sit here writing and addressing my Christmas cards. The fireplace is crackling and filling the room with warmth and the smell of freshly split pine. Jingle Bell Rock and other Christmas tunes fill the house with the proper sounds to keep me in the spirit of the season. My four little doggies are slumbering at my feet with visions of rawhide bones dancing in their little Pekingese noggin. The aroma of freshly baked cookies is coming from the kitchen... well ok, I lied. Not so much on the cookie smell, since I don't bake and there is actually no yummo freshly baked cookie smell in the house. But the rest of the sights and smells have me in this very melancholy mood.

Before I named my post Melancholy, I decided to makes sure I was using the word correctly. It appears I have a large following of school teachers who are keeping me on a very short leash grammatically. I should be offended, but I'm not. I know they just want me to look my best on my blog. Although I must admit that sometimes when I get an email from them correcting me, I do feel like I've been sent to the principal's office - just sayin'.

So I looked it up at dictionary.com and this is their definition of melancholy:

mel·an·chol·y

[mel-uhn-kol-ee] plural -chol·ies, adjective

–noun
1. a gloomy state of mind, esp. when habitual or prolonged;depression.
2. sober thoughtfulness; pensiveness.
3.Archaic .
a. the condition of having too much black bile, considered in ancient and medieval medicine to cause gloominess and depression.
b. black bile.
Ewww...OK, not sure what the color of my bile has to do with feeling a little depressed -- but I will just roll with it because, well, because I'm feeling melancholy. See how this melancholy thingy works? Oops... the teachers don't like me using the word thingy -- Sorry. My bad.

So we're down to the last couple of weeks of 2010 and I always hate to see the year end because I know there are always things I wanted to do but just never got around to it.

On the other hand I had some tremendous things present themselves to me this year giving me opportunities that I could have never dreamed of happening. When I was sharing this with my manager Mr. Brick's yesterday he said, "I know what you mean Ava." Mr. Bricks went on to say, "In my wildest dreams I never could have imagined that McDonald's would bring back the McRib. It just made me giddy as a young school girl?"

Ok that is just scary to me that a grown man can get giddy as a school girl over a fake processed pork sandwich. There's something just a tick off with him. Mr. Brick's is not right in the head I tell you.

Although I didn't start writing this little blog until October, I'm still feeling melancholy about it because just like with my song writing, I started writing it as a way of expressing myself -- and now I will soon be writing my 75th blog post.

I can reflect fondly over all of the blog stories about my obsession with sneakers, my Greek heritage, Mr. Brick's obsession with McDonald's, my non stop working out, eating healthy, daily 5 mile runs (weather permitting), my acting auditions, my love of Greek diner food, my Cd's sales, The Tea Party Patriots, Punkin, BoBo, Pookie and Itty Bitty, The Kardashians sisters, the pitfalls of living in New York and all of the day-to-day muckery in my life. I know its all good because it allows everyone to log on and read what-a- reality-show-waiting-to-happen my life really is.

So I'm going to spend a little more time sittting here in my melanchony mood and just smile. I realize I am truly a blessed Greek girl and God is an awesome God!

Blessings,

Ava

xox

Packing For A Road Trip

As I was packing the car to head to my Mom's for Thanksgiving, I noticed two of my neighbors were also packing their cars and appearing to be heading out-of-town for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. It should be no surprise because we are heading into the busiest travel days of the year. With all of the muckery and groping the TSA is doing at the airports, I am surprised anyone wants to fly anymore.

Even though I'm not leaving for a couple of days, I still need to start packing now so when the time comes I can just scoop up the four dogs and be on our merry way.

I do not consider myself a high maintenance girl, but when it comes to road trips, well just then maybe it actually does take a little more to maintain my sense of happiness than other people.

I know many of you think I must travel with one suitcase of just my sneakers. The truth is I usually only take three or four pairs with me when I travel, not an entire suitcase full. However, when I go to my Mom's I can get by with only packing two pairs because I still have a pair of old sneakers there in the closet of my old bedroom. They are there with my cheerleading pom-poms and other sentimental things I don't want to part with just yet. Don't worry I am nowhere near as bad as being able to star in my own episode of Hoarders. I promise.

I also have a set list of grocery and must have things that I need to purchase before heading out.

They include:

A 5 lb bag of raw almonds (Actually I always have almonds in my glove box)

And I must always be chewing gum:

10 packs of Wrigly's Extra Dessert Delights Sugar Free gum (Strawberry Shortcake or Key Lime Pie)

and

10 packs of Orbit White Bubblemint Sugar Free gum

Coffee (always have to have plenty of hot liquids)

Several Chocolate Fudge Graham Zone Perfect Bars

Several Chocolate Peanut Butter Zone Perfect Bars

Multiple bottles of VitaminWater Zero -Grape flavor, thank you

And also because my Mom never has this on hand: A bottle of the Coffee-Mate Fat-Free Hazel Nut Creamer. You don't want this Greek girl to wake up without this to put in her morning cup of coffee - just sayin'


In addition to everything I might need, I must make sure the dogs have all of their crap which includes multiple dog toys, leashes, collars, scarves, kibble, balnkets and dog beds for all four dogs.

Of course along the way there are several bathroom breaks for the dogs (and for me - it's all of that hot liquid and Vitamin Water  I drink.) If I do stop to eat at anyplace, maybe I will go to a Wendy's and get a baked potato and a side salad.

I don't take any magazines or books to physically read because that would make me car sick. I do take along my iPod and a few audio books to listen to. It's funny because as I pack, everything must go into the exact same spot in the car every time. That way I just can glance at an empty hole and realize that something is missing. It may take me an hour to decide what is actually missing, but I won't leave until the missing item is retrieved and the hole in the packed car is filled.

Well, time to get back to doing laundry and packing the car.

Have a great day!

Blessings,

Ava

xox

Visist my website at www.avaaston.com

Howloween has gone to the dogs!

NOTE:  This blog has been hacked by Punkin

Do I have the words "stupid dog" stamped on my forehead?...wait a minute, do I even have a forehead???

Psssssssst, its me Punkin, and the rest of the Aston canine clan -- BoBo, Itty Bitty and Pookie. Hey, this is my third time in as many weeks to hack into my Doggie Mom Ava's Mac Book Pro and hijack her blog.  Her original password was my name  "Punkin."   That was only natural because I am her favorite and #1 dog. So, the next day after she read my blog she cleverly changed the password to "Pookie", you can read all about that episode right here.

Well  I'm no Mark Zuckerberg but it did not take a genius to figure out she was most likely gonna change the password again to another one of my canine siblings.  So with my little paws I typed in the letters  I-T-T-Y-B-I-T-T-Y and then I saw this logo thing appear on the screen

I don't know why Ava has a giant half-eaten apple  on her screen but for me,it's Mission Accomplished I hacked in again. So, I'm back and I just had to write you all out there in blogsphere  because, well  we're in dire straits here.  Guess what Ava did today? I will give you a clue, look at this picture

Do any of us look happy? No. We are not happy campers anymore. Look closely, I think she is trying to get her own designing show on HGTV or Bravo by putting these cheesy little gourds, Indian corn, pumpkins and squash things next to us. Is she taking our picture or getting ready to serve us for dinner??

Yah, were pissed alright.  I knew something was up when she said we all were going to Petco. We haven't done that in a couple of months since Pookie had that unfortunate incident with A  Lhasa Apso.  Anyway, Ava took us to Petco and bought us these costumes for Howloween.   Now, I use to love to go to there like any other dog.  At the store we all got free treats, we could get our picture taken, we could play with the toys and sniff the butts of other hot looking doggies who were there.  But now, well, I hate Petco.  They are evil. Most likely a Liberal style of company who profits off of  the humiliation of canines by selling Howloween costumes for dogs.  Hmmm, wonder if they ever heard the phrase, don't bite the hand that feeds you. Our Doggie Mommie always uses that one on us when she wants to make us feel guilty for not doing what she wants.

Next time I go to Petco I think I'm going to "have an accident" right at the front door. Although it won't be an accident, if you know what I'm sayin'.  Maybe it will make some people stop and not go in.  Anything to do my part for the species.

Ava  just didn't stop with buying us these costumes. She also sent our buddy, Sunny, who is Mr. Bricks' dog, a costume. Sunny just tweeted me this twitpic of him that Mr. Bricks took.  Embarassing.

Since I now have your undivided attention, I have further business I need to discuss with you.  This is important, so listen up.  I want to let you know that if you are a little kid and you are reading this, and you plan to come to my house to go trick-or-treating you are screwed.  Mom's already starting to dip into the trick-or-treat stash of candy.

Look what I saw in her hands today after she came back from a run.   

And then there is this photo piece of evidence

At this rate, by Sunday she will be fresh out of candy. Look for her to start handing out raisins or pennies then.

We all have had enough of the humiliation. We know if we stick around here, she will end up dressing us like Pilgrims for Thanksgiving.  So Sunny is going to run away from Mr. Bricks house and we all are running away from here. We're going to  meet up in Vegas. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

Stay tuned....

Love,

Punkin

ruff ruff