Privilege and Guilt

Ever have one of the those days when you question, "is this seriously my life?"

Today I did. Nothing truly extraordinary happened, we spent most of the day cleaning. But we were not cleaning to get ready for family coming over for Christmas, we just wanted to leave the house in the decent shape for the dogsitter and dogs to enjoy over the next few days.

This is one of those times where I have to kind of just stand back and be both thankful and disgusted at the life of extreme privilege that I live. Mr. RipeMango and I are off to Puerto Vallarta for a few days, and a young woman, who works with our dog groomer, will be sitting our dogs and house. How's that for pampered pooches?

Well, at least we managed to hold back on Christmas shopping when it came to the dogs. All 3 will be sharing this woman figurine, they already own and love to bite on the man.

Animal cruelty?

One day I woke up and realized I am one of those people. The people who can't stop talking about their pets in the same obnoxious way that many new parents can't stop talking about their newborn infants. So here it is, another post with pictures of my boys. Although it is now mid-December, I decided that since I had my camera out, I might as well bust out their Halloween costumes since I never got around to taking pictures on Halloween.

Quasi-Bee

Cal (actually Calpurnia but don't tell him)

I know it's all so wrong in so many ways.

The high cost of beauty.

So in my continued half-assed attempts to attempt a more frugal and conscious lifestyle I've made it out the farmer's market two weeks in a row. Truth be told our farmer's market kind of sucks, there are very few vendors. But in order to get to a better market we'd have to drive 20 or 30 miles which really seems to defeat the purpose of it all.
I was so proud of myself for walking away with a bunch of fruit and even some asparagus for under $10. After my Friday's cheap and fun outing with friends, I was feeling really good!

But then I had to pick up my dogs from the groomer and handed over $85, ouch.
Oh well, it's not easy looking this good.

I wish I could do this myself, but then I look at my own image in the mirror and realize that if I'm not willing or able to give myself a decent hair style, I can't really do anything for these little guys either.

I was so pleased with their looks that I went a little crazy with the camera. Here's a shot that shows how Quasi earned his name: you can see his funny little teeth, his messed up little leg, and even his little tail (a no-no in the schnauzer world). Now, don't worry, I'm well aware that Quasi won't be winning any beautiful-baby contests anytime soon, but the little guy has a heart of gold, is beautiful on the inside, and other heart-warming cliches.