Luck of the dog

We had a guest on our evening walk. A little black Schnauzer named Lucky followed Jeff, Sassy, Alley and I home.

Luckily, Lucky was wearing a tag with his owner's phone number and a line that read "please help me." So we did. We brought Lucky into our house. I called Lucky's owner, but there was no answer. This was about 10:45 p.m., so I was afraid Lucky's owner was asleep.

Lucky's address wasn't on his tag but, luckily, I'm resourceful. I typed Lucky's phone number into Internet land and an address in our neighborhood popped up.

Jeff and I walked Lucky back to his house hoping the home owner would call back while we were walking. It didn't happen.

When we arrived at Lucky's house, we rang the doorbell. There was no answer. It was about 11:15 p.m., so I decided to call again in case the home owner was now awake, but scared to answer the door so late at night.

Luckily, a woman answered the phone and once I explained who I was and why I was standing on her porch, she opened the door. The woman thanked us and carried Lucky inside.

Lucky seems to be a fitting name for the adventurous pooch.

Birthday weekend: Parts I and II

I got to have two birthday weekends this year. Why? Did you miss that article about how 33 is the new 21?

Last weekend I had my Columbus celebration. A romantic dinner with Jeff and then drinks with friends. This weekend Anne, Luke and Jeff took me to Corks & Forks in Atlanta. It's my favorite food and wine festival. Guests can sample small plates of some of the best dishes from Atlanta restaurants while sipping wine and beer from various Atlanta wine shops and breweries. I tasted watermelon gazpacho, heirloom tomatoes on poppy-seed bread, slow-braised short ribs, pate on raisin toast, chilled cucumber soup, lobster roll and tuna tartar. Yummy!

Here are a few photos:

The adorable little cake that Jeff selected tasted just as good as it looks. It was the perfect size for two.


Tiny cakes don't have room for a lot of candles, thank goodess. I think this is more tasteful — not to mention safer — than cramming 33 candles on a cake


Knowing what an animal lover I am, but not wanting to add a third puppy to the family, Sassy and Alley decided to sponsor an elephant at the Atlanta Zoo in my name. The dogs were sold the moment they realized the elephant would still live at the zoo and not in their yard.


Jeff and I pause between bites of delicious food for a photo.


Feeling completely stuffed after eating 20 small plates of food, Anne and I have a refreshing beer. The full-fat Pacifico really got the metabolism going.


Anne and Luke, who prefer sandwiches and fries to pate and gazpacho, survived the food festival with minimal heartburn. We ordered pizza later that night while watching super-scary "Haunting in Connecticut" on television.

Supporting pets is fun

Tuesday night Jeff and I attended a benefit dinner for Paws Humane, the local no-kill animal shelter.

I enjoyed this benefit more than any other I've attended. Here's why:

1. Casual dress. Like many fundraising events, this one was scheduled during the dinner hour on a weekday. Many benefits require formal attire. Changing into an evening gown in a tiny office bathroom stall is, um, awkward. For this event, I just wore my work clothes.

2. Koozies. Instead of pouring my Bud Light into a fancy (i.e. breakable) glass, the bartenders protected the glass bottles by gently placing them into adorable take-home koozies with paw prints. Yay, fun!

3. Food. There was no plate of slimy chicken smothered in unidentifiable sauce delivered to a table pre-set with green salads and ranch dressing. Instead, a local restaurant catered the event with delicious slow-cooked bone-in chicken, mashed potatoes with tasty brown gravy and green beans sauteed with bacon pieces. Yummy!

4. Short speeches. Paws officials recognized their volunteers and gave out a few awards, but the whole presentation lasted about half an hour while guests dined. The speeches ended so quickly that people didn't have time to break out their crackberries or run for the door.

5. No guilt. Large screens showed pictures of adoptable pets, but there were no overly aggressive pleas or disheartening stories. I usually leave these events feeling awful that I can't commit more time or money to the cause, but the Paws people didn't make me feel bad. There were a variety of silent-auction items of different values on which to bid and no uncomfortable live auction.

Thanks Paws, for having such a delightful event. If you're looking to add a new member to your family, check out your local animal shelter. Click here to find pets to adopt in your area.

The pursuit of perfect

It seems a lot of people are wasting a lot of time unhappily searching for perfection. The perfect man. The perfect job. The perfect house. The perfect pet. The perfect life.

The bad news is perfect doesn't exist. Your man will always leave his dirty underwear on the floor. Your job will never be as fun as a day at the beach. Your house will always have something leaking, creaking or falling apart. Your pet will pee on your new carpet and chew on your shoes. Your life will sometimes be sad, depressing, scary, difficult and uncertain.

The good news is you don't need the perfect life to have a perfectly happy life.

Inglourious, time-traveling fun

A weekend has passed which means it's time to review more films. Remember, these movies are rated by how many mini wines it takes to enjoy the film. A rating of none is best. A rating of four is worst. Read more about the rating system here.

"Inglourious Basterds" 1/2 mini. First I must confess two things. Brad Pitt is in the film. I love Brad Pitt. I love everything Brad Pitt does. O.K. that was the first thing. The second thing is that Jeff loves Quentin Tarantino, not in quite the same way that I love Brad Pitt but just as passionately. Well, maybe passionately is not the right word. Let's just say Jeff has a great deal of artistic respect for Quentin Tarantino. Alright, on with the review. The film was brilliant. It wasn't as graphically violent as "Kill Bill," thank goodness. And the violence is mostly against Nazis, so it seems tolerable. In fact, many theatergoers cheered when Nazis were scalped. If you're squeamish, you'll definitely want to cover your eyes during those scenes. Yes, scenes, as in more than one. Brad Pitt is awesome as a Nazi-ass-kicker and Christoph Waltz, who plays a Nazi colonel, is superb. Writer and director Quentin Tarantino delivers his story through five chapters which makes the film seem shorter than its 2 1/2 hours. Each chapter is filmed in a different style than the last and offers a new glimpse into the mind of Tarantino if not into the mind of actual World War II soldiers. If you're looking for a documentary, stick with the History channel. If you want to see a strangely humorous, vengeful movie with clearly defined good guys and bad guys, watch this gloriously bizarre film. My only complaints are excessive violence and too little history on certain characters.

"The Time Traveler's Wife" 2 minis. I really wanted to like this movie because I adored the book of the same name written by Audrey Niffenegger. I suspect I would have enjoyed the film more if I'd liked the book less. The movie invents some conflict between time traveling Henry (Eric Bana) and his wife Claire (Rachel McAdams) that didn't exist in the book and therefore wasn't believable to me. The movie deletes entire characters who were featured in the book. It was probably necessary to edit out some characters for the sake of time and to get a PG-13 rating. (The book would have been rated R.) Unfortunately, the omission of supporting characters hurts the development of the main characters. Still, it was a sweet film and though you'll need a tissue or two, you won't be crying throughout the whole movie. Most surprisingly, I preferred the movie's ending to the book's. I also enjoyed Rachel McAdams' performance. There are some very funny moments and fans of the book can have a lively chat (perhaps over some more mini wine) comparing the book and the movie.

The best compliment ever

Friday was my birthday. I'm now 33. Yikes.

I got some great presents and some very sweet cards. My friend Amanda even posted a blog entry all about me. It's pretty much the best thing I've ever read. You can read it here.

Amanda and I worked together in Columbus for a couple of years before she moved to get married. The picture below is from her bachelorette party. I'm posting it as a thank you to Amanda for her lovely words. You'll notice that Amanda looks perfect and everyone else looks, um, not perfect. (Amanda, you're welcome. I'll deal with Sonya, Lisa and Lily later.)

Be sure to check out Amanda's blog. You don't want to miss out on your piece of the pie.

Gimme candy, I wanna play

To celebrate Candy Land's 60th birthday, San Francisco turned twisty, curvy Lombard Street into a life-size Candy Land game board.

I have so many fond childhood memories of Candy Land. I'm sure it was the first game I ever won. And I know my competitive spirit first emerged during a particularly fierce game. Young Dawn realized she was losing the game and, to avoid defeat, she flipped the board. The game pieces went flying and her crying sister went running to mom.

I don't remember getting in trouble. Maybe I convinced mom it was "an accident."

I think my sister would be happy to play the Lombard Street version with me, though. After all, I can't flip over an entire street. What do you think, Anne, a Candy Land rematch in San Franciso?

Brett: Please, give it up

All the guys at my office have been consumed with discussions/disagreements over Brett Favre's return to the NFL.

For those not in the NFL know, Brett was the longtime quarterback of the Greenbay Packers. He was much loved despite a one-time addiction to painkillers and a continuous addiction to self. After jerking the Packers around for a couple of years with his threats of retirement, he finally decided to say goodbye to football two years ago. A few months later, he recanted his goodbye and decided to return to the NFL and his seven-figure salary. The Cheeseheads essentially said, "hmmm no thanks." But the struggling New York Jets were willing to take on the aging QB with his willy-nilly passes. After failing to make the playoffs, Brett retired again.

The second retirement didn't take either. Brett's decided to play this season for the Minnesota Vikings. This is causing all sorts of heartache in Wisconsin since the Packers and Vikings are in the same division and will play each other twice this season. (Note to Packers' security guards: Cheese graters could be used as weapons.)

Of course my longtime-Brett-hater husband has all sorts of commentary on the subject. Jeff even has stats to back up his opinion. I'm not one for numbers, but I can — and do — add this insightful observation, "Gosh darn it, Brett even looks old." He's only 39, but I'm guessing football isn't a dermatologist-approved activity.

I'll be glad when all this Brett stuff is over and the Vikings continue to suck. Then I can go back to focusing on the most important question in football. Who is cuter? Eli or Peyton. (If you say "what about Tom Brady or Carson Palmer," you're not even allowed to have an opinion on this subject.)

Pass me a plate but not a knife

Confession: Jeff cooks dinner more often than I do.

Jeff finds cooking — especially chopping — relaxing. He likes to come home from a tough day at the office and attack a pile of helpless vegetables with a razor-sharp knife.

I find cooking stressful. My chopping skills are poor. I'm afraid to use high heat. Wooden spoons creep me out and olive oil is always splashing out of the skillet and hitting me on the arm. Ouch.

When I need to unwind after a difficult workday, I don't head to the kitchen. I head to the gym, also known as my living room. I play a Pilates, yoga or kickboxing DVD and sweat out my frustrations.

It might be an untraditional arrangement, but it works for us. I get to eat delicious, homemade food while staying relatively fit. Jeff gets fewer does-this-make-me-look-fat questions from me. See, everyone wins.

Movies by the bottle

After disagreeing with movie critics for the 124th time, I've decided to start reviewing films myself. I think the traditional rating systems - thumbs, grades and stars — have misled us for moviegoers for long enough. I have developed my own self-tested system.

I shall rate movies by how many mini wines an average viewer must consume for the movie to be enjoyable. Not familiar with mini wines? Log off and head to the liquor store immediately. They come in packs of four and each mini bottle is approximately one glass. Minis can also easily be concealed in purses and sipped from during films. Not that I'm recommending that, mind you. That would be breaking the rules.

Movies will be rated on a none-to-four scale. In this case none is the best. A movie with a rating of none is so good that even completely sober moviegoers will enjoy the film. A movie with a rating of four indicates moviegoers should skip the film or be prepared to take a cab home from the theater.

O.K. here we go...

"Julie & Julia" 1 mini. A woman in New York with a dead-end job decides to blog her way through Julia Child's cookbook. Scenes are split between Julia Child's cooking career and the bloggers' experiences making Julia's dishes. Meryl Streep is wonderful as Julia Child. She even manages to capture Julia's unusual American/French/German accent. (By the way, Julia was from Pasadena, as in California. Who knew?) Amy Adams plays the sometimes whiny, sometimes philosophical blogger with a continuous bad haircut. The movie was funny and compelling, but some scenes were just too long and full of self-loathing.

"(500) Days of Summer" 2 minis. Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Girl doesn't quite fall in love with boy. I loved the concept of the film, and the ending was perfect. But this film really dragged at certain points. It's just over an hour and half but feels like it lasts two and half hours. The two minis will be absolutely necessary for the viewer to survive the agony of the on-screen relationship's rocky moments. The boy is played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Zooey Deschanel plays the girl, Summer, hence the title.

Redneck Riviera, we love thee

Jeff and I went to Panama City, Fla. for a few days for our summer vacation. It's a popular spot for Georgians to visit, and is affectionately referred to as The Redneck Riviera. Why? Imagine a college spring break that lasts 365 days a year. Panama City is the home of jello shots, buy-one-get-one-free T-shirts, fried-food baskets, jumbo cocktails, ladies' nights, roadside daiquiri stands, nonexistent dress codes and inexpensive everything.

It also has beautiful beaches with white sand and clear water, restaurants serving delicious fresh seafood, seemingly hundreds of mini golf (and real golf) courses and cute tourist shops.

Here are a few photos from our vacation.

The view from our condo was awesome as long we focused on the beach and not the beach goers many of whom chose to wear too-small-for-their-large-belly bathing suits and none of whom had cover-ups.


We went on a sunset boat ride and saw dolphins which refused to be photographed.


Dawn and Jeff can't stop smiling when they realize that the condo complex has no cell phone access. Bye, bye work.


Jeff devoured some tasty key lime pie. Dawn had one teeny, tiny bite which immediately went to her thighs.


Dawn poses for a photo shoot on the bay and dreams of the beach house she'll one day own.


A quiet little cove where the super rich park their yachts.


Dawn took 123 photos before finally capturing this streak of lightning. Thankfully, it only stormed for about an hour one morning during the trip.


Anne and Luke are the best doggie sitters ever. This is their dream home. It's not on the beach, but it sure is charming.


Sassy and Alley were happy to jump in the car for the ride home.


Our neighborhood geese arranged this parade for our arrival home. It's nice to be missed.

Some folks get no respect

Do you ever feel like you get no respect? My co-worker Sonya does.

Here's another fun work video. Enjoy.