On the road with Mr Cooper

For New Years this year we pulled up stakes and met friends in Palm Springs. One of our own conditions was that we would only go if Mr Cooper would go along as well.

Cooper is a handful. When we had Lola and him together it was too much to wrangle him. He requires two people's focus to be out in polite company.

So this was his first hotel vacation. He has done AMAZING. We have also been very lucky to find two hotels that not only accept dogs, but welcome them.

We spent our first night at the Ace hotel. Super cute, well appointed and not soundproof in the least. After 2 am the official party around the pool ended and seemed to take the next hour to move directly above our heads.

This afternoon we moved to The Parker. It's a delight. As far as Mr Cooper is concerned, The Parker wins "paws down" due to his welcome bag of water bowl, treats and a toy. He didn't even care that they brought him the all pink girl's welcome gift. He was thrilled to have a toy to gut.

Happy new year to all from me, Lyle and the most spoiled dog I know, Mr Cooper!

Happy New Year

New Year's Eve came in this year on a Monday. And strangely it seemed just like any other Monday here at mi casa. Lyle, Chan and dinner that I made. Nothing extravagant. Took the dogs out for a walk after, then had Christmas presents between us since Chan had been gone until this afternoon.

I was highly resentful that we were not going out and doing a big hoopla. I like big hooplas. But then you start to look at the effort to get to the hoopla, the cost of the hoopla, the drama of the hoopla and all the "amateurs" out having their once a year hoopla and it all starts to feel a little forced.

Don't pity me. I had a nice evening. Also don't think I'm getting all old suddenly. I had hoopla on Friday night for a friend's birthday and I have considerable hoopla planned for the week we are in Vegas for work starting next Saturday.

A part of me wanted to take a sleeping pill at 10 pm tonight and send this year out with a whimper not a bang. Then I had a glass of wine with dinner and it gave me a start on a migraine headache and suddenly I was taking a mega pain killer and it looked like my wish was about to accidentally come true!

Tomorrow Christmas will come down and though I want my normal house back, I will be very sad to see it all go. New Year's, like Christmas can be a very rough time for me with all sorts of expectations. But I've made it through.

And now I have much, much work to do before I go to Vegas. Oh, and don't expect me to blog too much about work in Vegas, I'm really just going for the food.