It’s been a bittersweet year in many ways, but I have so much to be thankful for that it’s pretty overwhelming. I wish you all well over the holiday and hope that it’s spent with people that you love doing things that you love to do.

A big thank you to my loving and supportive family, Matt’s loving and supportive family, and you our greatest friends. You have held us up during some of the toughest times in our lives, and we owe you a lot.

And Matt, thank you for being my best friend and my strongest ally.

Now let’s rock dinner like the Pilgrims taught us, yo.

From Daily Daguerreotype

My good friend John was dandy enough to let me borrow this gorgeous photo for use in Daily Daguerreotype. There’s a bit of a story behind it that I will attempt to recount.

When he was on his virgin voyage to Thailand, John was struck down with the notorious dengue fever. Having never fought this illness myself, I can’t quite relate to the misery that he must have endured. Regardless, he’s a bit of a wuss, and stayed indoors for the first few days until he was feeling better.

Finally, John emerged from his bungalow (with a clean pair of shorts) to do the crazy rock climbing above the ocean thing that only morons attempt. But he was so taken aback by the beautiful seashells on the shoreline, that he decided to delay his death defying stunts to take his D80 out for a spin - this photo is the result.

John has beautiful photos of not only his trips to the East, but quite a few award-winning shots of Chicago. He often has them for sale, and if you’re interested in viewing them or purchasing any, drop me an email and I’ll put you in touch with him.

Thanks, John, for the photo and also for suggesting I get a Nikon. And all the other good & bad advice you give… unsolicited.

Seriously. What’s with this thing? A few months ago Matt picked up the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser while at the grocery store. He had seen his mom use it to wipe toddler marks off the walls with divine results, so he wanted to see if it was useful to remove dog marks from… everything?

After using one Magic Eraser to clean the entire bathroom I became a believer. This is the only cleaning agent I have ever found that can remove the stains on my white tile and white grout. (I know, black dog who loves to roll in mud + white tiles + white grout = the worst idea ever.) My only complaint is that it only seems to come in sponge form. If I could get it in a concentrated powder, my life would be complete.

I would love to switch over to entirely green cleaning products, but I can’t imagine giving up my love affair with Mr. Clean. Does anyone know of a product that works like the Magic Eraser but doesn’t kill baby kittens?

A few weeks ago we took Berlin to our favorite park for a hike to get out some of her excessive puppy energy. We managed to pick the perfect Saturday as the leaves were starting to peak, so we spent the afternoon sucking in the clean autumn air and watching Berlin happily romp down the path.

Since then, the leaves have mostly fallen and turned a nasty shade of grey making our park rather unphotogenic. Not only that, but Berlin was groomed on Sunday, and because I neglected to say anything to the groomer before dropping her off, they gave her face a “poodle cut.” She looks like the most hysterical and embarassing creature to ever walk the face of the planet.

So this photo brings me back to a beautiful fall day when it was truly enjoyable to be outside, and my dog actually looked cute.

From Daily Daguerreotype

Most of you know how much I love the holidays, and each year I find myself getting increasingly more Christmas cheer than ever before. This year for my birthday Matt bought me Harry Connick Jr.’s newest disc, “What A Night! A Christmas Album,” which was released the day after my birthday. Suffice it to say… the boy knows.

I’ve been playing it non-stop, so it’s only appropriate that I blog about it this week. Like any other Connick Jr. album, the songs are well-orchestrated and leave you humming new riffs that you will now forever associate with “Have A Holly Jolly Christmas.” Although it hasn’t yet taken the place in my heart that belongs to his 2003 album “Harry for the Holidays,” I have to admit that it’s pretty cute to hear him singing along with his daughter Kate who has some SERIOUS CHOPS!

As always, you can preview the album in the Amazon widget in the sidebar. And if you need a serious boost of Christmas cheer (which some of you Scrooges REALLY need!), download it to your iPod and try to withstand crushing hardcore on H Jr.

Also, I always link you through to Amazon because I prefer buying mp3s from their site over iTunes. But I’m sure you can find it there as well.

We have been hard at work this week - trashing our bedroom. Because this weekend we’re redoing everything in it and my heart is palpitating wildly just thinking about it. We’re getting rid of our current furniture and bringing home my grandmother’s bedroom set which I’m madly in love with. We’re having to weed out a lot of stuff because we’re losing some drawer space, but Matt and I both love to weed out and simplify so we’re walking around with big toothy grins saying “Let’s git rid o THAT! And let’s git rid o THAT TOO!”

Our bedroom has always been the place where things go to be hidden from visiting guests and/or die. Berlin will only eat in our bedroom, so it constantly smells of dog food. She has also vomited and diarrhea-ed on the rug numerous times, so it’s basically the slough of despond. My best friend, Kiki, and I were having a great conversation the other day that went like this:

Me: Ok, something totally gross. All of our sheets are white. We’ve only had them for four years cause you know, we registered for them. And they’re all yellowing.
Kiki: Did you wash them with something yellow?
Me: No, I mean they’re yellowing from like… nasty body slarve. I’m about as anal as you can get about sheets. I HAVE to change them weekly, and I wash them and bleach them and the whole nine yards.
Kiki: That’s disgusting. It might have something to do with your nasty city water.
Me: OH I BET YOU’RE RIGHT! So can I get new sheets?
Kiki: DEFINITELY.
Me: But aren’t sheets supposed to last longer than four years? I mean my mom has sheets that she’s had for like… twenty years. And they’re in great condition.
Kiki: My grandmother has these green towels still that she had when I was a kid.
Me: So I should hang on to these sheets?
Kiki: NO! Get rid of them.

Don’t you want to sleep in our bed now?

Anyways, we’re changing everything around in the bedroom - finally hanging up curtains and all that nonsense.  And I’ve even commissioned a painting to hang over our bed. Sarah creates beautiful artwork and my sister bought one of her paintings. And because I adore my sister and want to be just like her, I’m doing the same thing. It is my intent that finally we will have a cozy retreat from everything that stresses us out. Primarily dog diarrhea. Will post pictures when the whole shebang is complete.