Marley (aka the Big Yellow Dog that Showed Up on our Porch)...and Me

Last Saturday night, I was sitting on the couch watching tv with the dogs....I should pause here to emphasize the importance of not letting envy control you life. Coveting is a sin and besides that, living such a glamourous, wild, and crazy lifestyle like mine is certainly not for the weak....but I digress... So, we're sitting there when all of a sudden, this big nose appears in my window. And then as quickly as it appeared, it was gone. I looked out trying to find the person that went with this little guy and upon finding none, I threw on the first pair of shoes I could find and a coat and went outside to investigate. After all, it had been snowing all day long that day, and I sensed the possibility of a stray animal roaming the freezing streets all night. Well, not on my watch.



Off I go, following the little paw prints as they cut across our yard and down the street. And there he was - three houses down. Our neighbor, Steve, was getting into his car to go pick up his sister who had broken down, and when he turned around he was greeted with a cold wet nose in the drivers seat! He drew the fella' out of the car and was standing in the middle of the street at the point that I came upon the scene, ready to nab the perp! I hollered "Is that your dog?" No. Dang. I had a bad feeling...but not as bad as Steve who was trying with all of the man strength within him to ward off the prowess of this male canine Cleopatra. That's right, it was going to take more than just a very determined grown man to win a dance-off with the unneutered yellow labrador retriever. At one point, Humpster was holding on to Steve's arm so tightly trying to get it on that when Steve lifted his arm to try to detach furry love monster, furry HELD ON. And there they stood, in the middle of the snowy street with nothing more than a street light illuminating their moment together as Steve raised his arm and Humpster held dangling tightly to his new found love buddy.



As if this sight wasn't enough on it's own merit, there is one more player in this production. Steve's 9 year old son, Mason, was standing there watching the whole thing! The next day, Steve said Mason had so much fun telling people all day long about the dog that kept trying to dance with daddy! He was laughing so hysterically that he could barely tell the story. Now THAT is what life is all about!

Well, needless to say, Marley ended up staying with us until Monday since the Humane Society wasn't open until then and there was no way I was going to surrender this cutie to the pound. So, we filled a large crate we had out in the garage with a fluffy comforter, put another over the top, and then turned on a warm toasty ceramic heater for him. I do not lie when I tell you that was a horrible weekend for both me and my hubby - dogs are supposed to be in the house with you...hanging with the fam...but because our fur kids are just mere little weiners, we couldn't risk it. It was torture - we thought Monday would never get there....but alas, it finally did show up one morning a couple of days later.

I won't go in to the lavish details of us determining that whoever owned this lump of adorable furriness wasn't worthy. We had posted on craigslist, notified the humane society, AND the animal shelter. No takers - they probably saw this as their blessing in disguise. And we wouldn't want to take that away from them afterall, so we took him to the Humane Society. They had to hold on to him for a certain amount of days just in case. Of course, no one came looking. People stink. So, now he's up for adoption and someone is going to get very lucky by choosing this guy for your own! You can go to the (Genesee County) Human Society website to see him (that's here in Michigan) - He's #11708 "Kipper". Until he gets his new home, we'll be keeping an eye out for him. He's our new fur-buddy.

Ok, I'm outta' here - Gotta' watch my American Idol and root for Matt from Kalamazoo. Two hours of Idol happiness...this Princess is in heaven! You'll be hearing from me after the show -

Ta Ta Commoners.....

MEGA Superstar!

Last year, in preparation for my work’s all-employee meeting in December, at the suggesting of my President and CEO, I was asked to sing God Bless America at the beginning of the meeting. I was so excited! First of all, I was going to get to sing for about 150-200 of my peers who had no idea I was a singer, and secondly, I finally had the opportunity to sing Celine Dion’s version of God Bless America. I LOVE her rendition and had never, until now, had an opportunity to bust it out. The moment had come. The day before the big meeting, I went over to the hotel where the meeting was going to take place to rehearse. It was not until then that I found out the Governor was going to be speaking at our meeting – she was totally going to hear me sing! Wow, she had no idea that that would be her lucky day! Unfortunately, the day of the meeting, due to technical difficulties, both she and my President had to leave before I was able to rock the house so neither got to hear. (Although, I should note that at the conclusion of my song, the entire room went to their feet applauding. It was a moment that took my breath away.) In the following days, I had people continuing to come up to me and saying the nicest things, including how shocked they were. In fact, one person admitted that he was really nervous for me because he thought I was going to relive Roseanne Barr’s memorable performance of The Star Spangled Banner. Nice. Thanks for the confidence.

So, fast forward to our MEGA (Michigan Economic Growth Authority) Board Meeting last week. We had two members running late which delayed the meeting unexpectedly. I take the minutes so I sit at the head table with the rest of the board and staff, and all of a sudden, Jim looks at me and somewhat whispers “Do you want to sing? You could sing God Bless America for us.” I thought he was joking so I initially went along with it until I realized he wasn’t. There’s a room full of people, including a television camera from one of the news stations in Detroit. I said, “What if I mess it up?” He looked around, shrugged his shoulders and said, “Who cares?” Um, that would be me. As I tried to buy some time while I played the song through my head, trying to figure out what could and couldn’t be pulled off in my soon to be quazi-Grammy Award winning performance a capella, he starts guilting me by telling me it’s his birthday (which just so happens it was) and reminding me that he had to miss my first performance. Finally, after I was able to conclude that I should be able to, for the most part, pull this off, I agreed. He then introduced me by telling the crowd that at the MEDC, not only do we work hard on economic development, but we have other talents. I thought this might also be a great time to showcase my hand in the arm pit musical instrument technique, but I digress…

So, I got up there and sang. Well…there I go being a big HIT again. Just kidding, but it was well received and I was quite proud of myself – no blunders. Well, that anyone knew about. There was a point in the song where I started to change keys but I am not kidding you when I say that my vocal chords refused. It’s like they revolted and insisted upon staying in the same key. It was funny.

All of that because today, I received a hand-written note in the mail from someone that was there at that meeting representing his company who had applied for an incentive. He wrote the nicest things, closing with “You have a voice and talent worthy of any Hollywood event.” Now, I don’t brag about myself sincerely – I find it extremely uncomfortable and actually, as I write this, I’m getting fidgety about actually posting this to my blog, afeared of being perceived as arrogant. I hope it’s not taken that way. I just thought it was so cool that in this fast-paced, high tech, impersonal society we have come to know and live in, someone took a few minutes to write a note (NOT an email), put a stamp on it, and mail it to acknowledge someone else. And I floated on cloud nine all day because of it. On a smaller scale, it took me back to the feelings I experienced in December after singing for my work meeting – I was on a singer’s high for a month with that one!

Thanks for indulging mi-mi-mi-mi-mi! You-you-you-you-you are the best!

The Princess (aka The MEDC side show)

PetCo...Where EVERYONE Should Go

When we got Norman three years ago, we just started shopping at PetSmart for no particular reason other than that was really the only pet supply store we had ever heard of, and because we were feeding him Science Diet, we had to get it from one of the big pet supply stores or at the vet. Obviously, we also signed up for their customer appreciation program “PetPerks”. Then came Mattie…and then Arthur. I realized that the things we buy were never on sale so we were, for the most part, always paying full price. When I overheard a customer tell the cashier he didn’t bother with the card anymore because it didn’t save him anything, I realized it wasn’t just me.

I decided to go check out PetCo and see what was up with their store. Jackpot! With their Pet Rewards program, once you buy 10 bags of dog food or 10 grooming services, you get one free. That’s in addition to any special prices they have! Not to mention, some of their everyday prices were cheaper than PetSmart. Too Cool! And not only that, we had recently decided to switch dog foods and begin using Eukanuba for Dachshunds. And the PetSmart that I looked in didn’t have it in stock but PetCo did.

I sent an email to the President and CEO of PetSmart explaining the situation and why I was taking my business to PetCo. They had a right to know why they were losing my business – how can they tweak what they don’t realize might need tweaking? The response came from the person who oversees the PetPerks program. Instead of making any attempt to keep my business, she chose to inform me of how many emails sent from the program that I hadn’t even opened (yes, it appears they can track that which is just creepy) and how many different offers they had sent me since we signed up that I didn’t redeem, etc. I didn’t even bother to respond to explain that the email offers I DID open were never beneficial to me which is why I quit bothering to even open the emails. Apparently, PetSmart has so many customers that they have no problem losing a few so I said good-bye.

So, I buy the 14 lb. bag (the ‘big’ bag) of Eukanuba. It’s cheaper than buying two 7 lb. bags (the ‘small’ bag) and feeding three little doggies takes us through the food fairly quickly. One day, I went to buy more and they were out of the big bags. I grabbed a small bag and inquired as to when the big bags would be back in stock. That’s when they explained that the stores don’t carry the big bags of the breed-specific Eukanuba anymore for the small breeds. It makes sense. But not for our purposes here today. Feeding three little dogs is like feeding one big dog. And I could still buy it online but once I paid for shipping, it was more expensive than buying the two small bags. So, being the communicator that I am, one Friday afternoon, I sent an email to the President and CEO of PetCo. I explained the situation and how much we enjoyed using PetCo and wondered if there was any possible way to make special arrangements – possibly have our store order it or something. I included my cell phone in case someone wanted to call me.

I’m not kidding you – on Saturday afternoon, I received a call from the Regional Manager for our area. He explained that Brian, the President/CEO, had forwarded my email to him and that the Auburn Hills store was the only store in the area still carrying the big bag, so he has already made the arrangements for me. There is a big bag of food already at the Flint store waiting for me and he was working on getting two more bags there, and if I will give them 2 weeks notice, they will continue to have a bag delivered to the Flint store from Auburn Hills. At the end of the call, I thanked him so much for helping out. Do you know what he said? He thanked ME for giving them the opportunity to keep our business. Can you believe that? They wanted us to stick around. They appreciated us and our business…

After I hung up, I promised myself that I would do everything I can to spread the word about PetCo’s customer appreciation. Anyone reading this with a pet should take your business to PetCo. They are awesome and they care about the business of each and every customer. I am one person buying dog food and they jumped through hoops to make things work. We are now loyal customers and I hope everyone who reads this will consider making the same decision.

Thanks for indulging me – These days, there’s so much bad news and media, it’s important to take the time to spread the word about GOOD stuff happening!

All My Kids Have Fur-
The Princess

Oooh Say Did You Hear??

I just have to say “WOW” to last night’s performance of The National Anthem by former American Idol contestant Jennifer Hudson. Besides just looking so classy and maintaining such professional composure after the year she’s had (I mean, even with a GREAT year behind me, the National Anthem makes me tear up!), she ROCKED it. That was one of the absolute best performances I’ve ever heard. If you missed it, you can check out her performance on You Tube.

It is now added to my list of all time favorite performances of this song. Another extremely memorable version was performed by the Dixie Chicks. I don’t really like them but there’s no denying that they hit the bulls-eye with their rendition. In case you don’t know or don’t remember what I’m talking about, check it out.

That’s the only reason I really watch the Super Bowl, so thank you Jennifer! (The photos above are taken with my iphone while we were laying on the couch watching the game...well, some of us were watching.)

Also, I just found out about a very cool website I wanted to share with everyone. It’s called Catching Fireflies and it’s just a really fun place to shop! They have every kind of fun whimsical gift you could possibly imagine, perfect gifts ideas for those people who have everything…or even for those who don’t. My personal favorites: jewel-shaped ice cube trays and of course, the shower sponge shaped like a microphone. Like I said, PERFECT gift ideas!

Ok, signing off for now…still struggling from my “warm weather hangover” from yesterday…If you had told me many years ago that I would ever think 36 degrees is warm and toasty, I would have told you you were nuts…But I digress.
The Princess