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 :)

Hello, Atlanta!

As most of you know, Mike accepted a job in GA about a month ago. It was a risk-taking decision, but so far, so good! He loves what he's doing and really happy with it :) The downside is that he's been there for a few weeks, so I flew up to Atlanta this past weekend to see him and to visit Atlanta for the first time. We had a blast! What a great city Atlanta is!

We stayed at the Renaissance hotel in midtown, which was gorgeous! We had a top floor room with a really great view. I flew in Saturday morning and we went to Coca Cola World (Coke is based in Atlanta). This place was really neat - they had tons of old paraphernalia dating back to the 1800s.

We made a new friend

They also had some cool interactive stuff to play around with.

We got "bubble-ized!"

The famous red couch from American Idol.

Up until last Thursday, the vault with the original recipe for Coca Cola was kept at the SunTrust building downtown. They finally moved it to Coca Cola World in honor of Coke's 125th anniversary. You're only allowed to be in this room for one minute and if you get too close to the vault, an alarm goes off telling you to please move away.

They also had a sampling room with over 60 different kinds of sodas from around the world - all made by the Coca Cola company - and you get unlimited samples. If you've ever been to Epcot and visited the soda sampling room, it's the same concept except WAY bigger. Each kiosk is broken down by region. The Italian soda called Beverly was, by far, the worst one. Way to go, Italians...

After 63 samples...

After we were done, we grabbed lunch and headed to SweetWater Brewery to meet up with Mike's friend Scott and his wife. We love SweetWater beer but unfortunately, it's not that easy to find. They sell them all over GA and have just started branching out to other places. The furthest south you can find it is in Gainesville. The brewery there is great - for $10, you get a pint glass to keep, plus you get 6 tickets to have your glasses filled up with any of the beers they have on tap, along with a brewery tour. It was packed but a cool place to hang out.

After that, we went back to the hotel, went out for dinner and some drinks and then crashed early. We had both been up early that day so we were beat.

The rooftop deck of our hotel.

Someone turned their tree into a snowman. Love it!

Mike and his friend, Scott. Naturally, we can't go anywhere without finding a Gator bar.

On Sunday, we got up and went to brunch and walked around downtown Decatur for a little while. We drove around some of the neighborhoods and then went to Piedmont Park - kind of like a mini Central Park.

Later that night after dinner, Mike took me to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens to see their Christmas lights display. It was so pretty and a great way to end the weekend! It felt very festive too :)

Of course, Mike found his orange and blue!

And I found my green and gold!

Tis the season!

December 1st and woke up to 45 degrees today - love it! It definitely feels like Christmas. I started decorating the house this week and watched the lighting of the tree at Rockefeller last night. Not gonna lie - totally got misty-eyed. I miss walking by that tree on my way home from work every day! I would purposely walk a few extra blocks to a different subway so I could pass down that way. It was the best!

Thanksgiving was really nice! We flew up to Wisconsin and stayed with Mike's godmother (Michelle and her husband came too). They live in a beautiful house on a lake. On Thursday, we started our day at Mike's uncle's house, complete with a full meal, some wine and a Packers game. Later that day, we went back to the house we were staying at and had Thanksgiving dinner #2. Needless to say, we were spent by the end of the night! On Friday, we went to visit with Mike and Michelle's grandmother for lunch, and then went to their aunt's house to visit with some of the family from their mom's side. It was really great seeing everyone and spending time with family!

Thanksgiving with the Goreckis

Mike's weak when it comes to desserts.

 That's how they do it in Wisconsin. Go Pack Go!

In case you're wondering what side of the family Mike gets his humor from...

(Some of) the crew at Thanksgiving #2. 

So festive sitting by the fireplace.

In case you're wondering where all that pie from the earlier picture went...

Outside in grandma Gorecki's yard.

Saturday morning, Mike and I got up bright and early and took the train to Chicago to see our friend, Jenny. Since we'd been to Chicago several times before, we had already done most of the touristy stuff and didn't really have any set plans. We spent some time walking around the city, looking at Christmas decorations and then reluctantly watched the UF/FSU game later that night. We all know how that turned out, so we won't speak of it. On Sunday, we walked around the city a little and then saw the Muppet movie. It was great! Definitely felt like a kid again :)

German village outside Daly Plaza.

Inside Macy's (the old Marshall Field's). So pretty!

Our traditional "beer flight" that we do at every new brewery we visit. 

Hoping this shot will help us forget the awful score...

Garrett's Popcorn - famous popcorn place with the BEST gingerbread popcorn!

Mmm...our favorite. Blue Point oysters.

Love that Chicago skyline!

Next weekend, we'll be up in Atlanta. We're just all over the place, lately! The countdown to Christmas is on. Clearly, Penny is super excited...