Atlanta revisited, pirates and puppies!

First and foremost, what happened to January?? How can it be the 31st already? It didn't hit me until Matt Lauer mentioned this morning on the Today Show, that Thursday is Groundhog Day. Say what?? Not that it matters down here. I believe Punxsutawney Phil pardons Florida since it's going to be 80 degrees every day, regardless of whether or not he sees his shadow.

A few weeks ago, I flew up to Atlanta again to visit Mike. I was able to take a longer weekend this time, which was really nice. I posted all of my pictures from the trip on my photo blog, Pictures & Pawprints, so you can head over there to see them all.

"Hello, Atlanta!"

As usual, we didn't sit still for 5 minutes. I flew in Thursday night and we managed to come across a really great seafood place for dinner. On Friday, we visited the MLK, Jr. Memorial Site, which was really neat. Being that it was MLK weekend, we figured this would be appropriate. There is a museum on site, along with the grave of MLK and his wife, Coretta. There is a tour of the neighborhood that you can take, which we did that afternoon. The tour begins at the firehouse that MLK used to visit as a child (apparently, being a fireman was the dream career of choice by the boys back in the 1920's and 30's). The home that he was born in and grew up in is still there, right down the street, along with all the original items (the home is still owned by the King family). From there, you can visit Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he and his father both preached at. It's also the church where his funeral was held at. The altar is completely restored with all the original items from when he was there. It's very cool to take all of that in and very interesting to think of everything that happened on those very streets back in the 1960's.

The cart that carried MLK's coffin during his funeral.

On Saturday, we started off our day with a tour at the Fox Theater. The Fox is the most famous theater in Atlanta and was built back in 1927. It's the main theater where all the Broadway shows are held when they go to Atlanta, as well as some concerts. After that, we went to the Center for Puppetry Arts. They just opened up a brand new Jim Henson exhibit, with original puppets and characters from his movies and TV shows. Unfortunately, I noticed the nice, big sign that said "NO PHOTOGRAPHY." Boo! But not before I was able to snap at least one picture of Big Bird. It's one of the original ones and it was so interesting to see how he's maneuvered. The same guy has been playing Big Bid since he was introduced.

After meeting up with some friends for some AWESOME true Southern food for dinner at a famous place called Mary Mac's (fried chicken okra,  potato pancakes, chicken and dumplings, mac & cheese and cinnamon apples - YUM!), Mike and I went back to the Fox Theater. Only this time, we were there to see a show - "Annie!" When the movie "Annie" came out when I was little, I was obsessed with it. It was my absolute favorite as a kid. Before it was a movie, it was a Broadway show, which just happened to be playing at the Fox Theater the weekend I was there. Mike got me tickets for Christmas and it was really fun to see it on stage. 

On Sunday, we went for brunch and then to the Georgia Aquarium. It was awesome! Mike thought it would be fun to mess with the penguins, so he pulled up a picture of a sardine on his phone and held it up to the glass and the penguin actually followed it around on the other side! He had his mouth open and everything, like he was trying to catch it! Too funny.

After that, we took a drive around some of the neighborhoods and then went to a bar to watch the Packers game (which we won't speak of). I had to fly out early the next morning, so we headed back to the hotel, watched the Golden Globes, and called it a night. Can't wait for the next time!

This past weekend, Mike flew home for a quick trip and we went to Gasparilla. For you non-Tampa natives, Gasparilla is an event that began in 1904, honoring the invasion of Jose Gaspar, a pirate, in to Tampa. Basically, it's like Mardi-Gras, but with pirates. They do a parade, throw beads, etc. In the morning, we headed out to the "Invasion" which is a giant floatilla of boats throwing beads, that's led by the pirate ship that sits docked off of Bayshore year-round. My friend Danielle came to town for it (a tradition since she moved to South Carolina) and as always, we had a blast. 

My latest project - a front door wreath for Gasparilla. I've seen people putting these up on their doors every year, so I decided to get in on it and made one to hang up this year.

Yesterday (January 30th) was Penny Lane's FIRST birthday!! Can't believe our baby is one! She's such a great, little companion. We were very lucky to have adopted such a sweet girl. She celebrated by going to the park after work and chasing squirrels, and enjoying a brand new bone and some doggie ice cream last night. Happy birthday, Penny!!

 

My new project!

I won't go into too much detail since you can read about it in my opening post. But here is the link to my new project that I'm holding very near and dear to my heart. It'll be a collection of my pictures that I've taken and was sort of a New Year's Resolution/Reason to become more obsessed with my new "professional" camera. Hope you like and it check back often as this particular site will be updated with new photos regularly. I also have a link on the right-hand side of this blog, so the most recent post from my photo blog will automatically appear. I started it up a few days ago, so go back to the opening post and work your way back :)

Click here to check it out!

Holiday fun

Finally getting around to recapping our holidays. They were busy, but really nice! We went over to Jupiter to spend Christmas with the Calcotes. We drove over on the 23rd and my sister and I worked on our annual gingerbread house. We don't like to make normal gingerbread houses because that's no fun. We always have to have some sort of theme (to our mother's dismay), but we have a good time and it's become a fun tradition. Last year, our theme was "Jersey Shore" (it was pretty awesome. Not gonna lie). This year, we went with one of my sister's favorite shows, "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." Behold, Paddy's Pub in all it's sugar-filled glory:

On Christmas Eve, we did our usual Calcote tradition. Church at 4:30, followed by a seafood dinner (we follow the tradition of the "Feast of the 7 Fishes"- an Italian custom of not eating meat on Christmas Eve). After dinner, we get in our pajamas, dad makes eggnog and we watch "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." I can't even count how many years we've been doing this, but I love it!

Christmas morning was fun, as always. We were in the living room opening presents until around 11:00, and then we had a late breakfast and headed over to my aunt and uncle's house for Christmas dinner. Penny was spoiled, of course.

My mom always does a killer job on her tree!

So festive in her Christmas dress!

Penny got to meet her cousin, Foxy.

The following day, we went down to Miami to visit some close friends of ours. My friend Kim had triplets last year, and it had been awhile since we've seen them. They're getting so big and so cute!

Jacob

Jackson

Lydia

After we left their house, we drove by the neighborhood we lived in for 17 years (where I grew up). We got very nostalgic visiting the old park in the neighborhood where we used to play :)

I used to call this the "swiss cheese wall."

Mike even got in on the fun.

Love this place. Brought back such memories!

It was a great weekend and I can't believe the holidays already came and gone! Since Mike was in Georgia for most of December and we didn't throw our annual Christmas party, I just put up a small, fake tree instead of getting a real one. It was perfect, though :) I did decorate, as I love to do.

Penny's first ornament!

The "wedding" section of our tree :)

On the 30th, we went to Michelle's house to celebrate Christmas with the Goreckis and had a wonderful time with the family! It was great to be all together.

Penny was spoiled yet again!

Gorecki family Christmas picture.

Of course, we can't be normal :)

Since we had to forego our annual Christmas party, we hosted a New Year's Eve party which was great! We had a lot of people over and had a great time. It was good to celebrate with close friends. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and here's to a fabulous 2012!

Who's your daddy?

I'll get to my Christmas and NYE re-cap later on. Still have a boatload of pictures to upload from my fabulous new Canon Rebel T3 (my Christmas present from Mike and my parents and the beginning of a new project for me. More on that to come as well...).

In the meantime, we did receive a cool little present right around Christmas time - Penny's DNA results! When we got her from the Humane Society, we were told that she was a basenji/beagle mix. There was absolutely no doubt she's a basenji of some sort. Her markings and characteristics are VERY basenji. At one point, we thought she might be full-breed but a dwarf basenji since the only real characteristics that strayed from the typical basenji is that she's a little smaller and has shorter legs. Here's what a full-breed basenji looks like:

Completely Penny, right? We saw NO signs of beagle in her whatsoever. At first, we thought she might be part dachshund because she has a slightly longer body. As she grew, we saw a little Jack Rusell since her ears started to flop down a  little and she has a lot of terrier traits. To kill the curiosity, we bought a DNA kit. These things are starting to become quite popular among mixed-breed dog owners. Our local newspaper did a story about it, followed by one of our local news channels. The company is called WisdomPanel Insights and you can buy their kits online, at PetSmart and now our local Humane Society sells them (where I got our kit from). It's pretty easy. All you do is fill out your info followed by the dog's sex, birthday and name. Then you swab the inside of their cheek with the 2 provided swabs, seal them back up and send it out. That's it. No descriptions, pictures, etc. are given, so they have no clue what your dog looks like. About 2-3 weeks later, you get a detailed report with a breakdown of the DNA they found in the dog, tracing back to the dog's great-grandparents. A friend of ours did it for her dog that she found on the street, and was completely surprised at what it came back with. It was pretty neat. About 2 weeks later, we got Penny's results back and would have never in a million years have guessed what else she was mixed with...

Her majority is basenji (obviously). She has full-breeds on both sides. Here is how her breakdown works:

Parent A:

Great-grandparents #1A: Basenji, Basenji

Great-grandparents #2A: Newfoundland, mutt

Grandparent #1A: Basenji

Grandparent #2A: Newfoundland mix

Parent A: Basenji/Newfoundland mix

Parent B:

Great-grandparent #1B: Basenji, mutt

Great-grandparent #2B: Basenji, German short-haired pointer

Grandparent #1B: Basenji mix

Grandparent #2B: Basenji/German short-haired pointer 

Parent B: Basenji/German short-haired pointer mix

Crazy, huh?? Since Great-grandparent #2A mated with a mutt and Great-grandparent #1B mated with a mutt, they gave a breakdown of the list of DNA found in those dogs since they were both mixes. Here is what they found:

Clumber Spaniel

Black and tan coonhound

Pyrenean Shepherd

Dachshund (woo-hoo! One correct guess. Sort of)

Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen

No clue what 3 out of 5 of those dogs are, but they sound fancy.

Here's a picture of the main report we got. It was 7 pages so I won't bore you with the whole thing. If you click on it, it'll bring up a larger image.

I'm glad we did the test. It killed the curiosity and also lets us know why she carries so many of the basenji traits. 

Oh yeah - when we were in Jupiter for Christmas, she discovered she can bark. We've had this dog for almost 6 months and never heard anything but a wimper or a pathetic growl. However, since it takes a lot of effort for her to bark, she lets out one or two at a time and that's it for about a week. She's still the world's worst guard dog :)