24 Days Gone

I can't believe it is the second week of February already. It's been 24 days since my last visit to the Blogosphere. I'm sorry I haven't been able to update my blog lately or check out what is going on in everyone else's world. However, I have been very busy these last few weeks and haven't even had a chance to think about updating. To catch up, here are the four major things happened that I'd like to share with you

1.) Not Another Goodbye
Some of you may remember our aborted attempt to adopt Henri the bichon frise a few months back. Well, hope springs eternal and we tried again:

Meet Lenny, a 5 years old male bichon frise that we adopted about 3 weeks ago. He was rescued from a "breeder situation" (aka puppy mill) in Pennsylvania. After our experience with Henri, I was reluctant to blog about Lenny until we were certain he was going to stay.

Well, the vet check-up revealed his medicals were fine, with the exception of slight anemia, which the vet said was most likely due to a poor diet. It's been a tough road to be sure....after living in a cage or 5 years, Lenny wasn't properly socialized or trained. He came to us knowing next to nothing except how to live in a cage. We even had to teach him how to walk on a leash!

There were some hiccups to be sure: He is very picky about when and where he goes to the bathroom. He does ok walking with my husband, but with me he just refuses to go - very frustrating when I was walking him in the below freesing weather of the few weeks. He would sniff every tree, hydrant, and plant around, but nothing! However, we got some wee-wee pads, and he is doing terrific with them.

In addition, he is afraid of other dogs and men, including my husband. He is warming up to my husband, but he still sometimes runs and hides (in his crate or under the bed) when he comes home. However, just this weekend, he started jumping up on the couch next to my husband (mostly because we had to blocked all other access to the couch, but still, he stayed there for a while.)

After 3 weeks, he is starting to warm up and get more comfortable in his forever home, and we are confident that over the next few months he will continue to improve more and more. Today he even flashed that trademark bichon smile:

if that doesn't make you happy, then I don't know what will

2.) She Finally Opened Up
When we found out that my mom's big c had seemingly come back, my mom didn't want to talk about it.....she just shut down to us, her family. The worst thing about it was that she was able to talk about her situation with her friends, but not to her family.

Perhaps my mom doesn't want us to worry, but she needs to understand that it makes us worry more not knowing anything. Thankfully my friends whose mom my mom had spoken with was kind enough to share me some info that my mom had told her. This gave me strength to confront her. It was hard to approach her but, with the help of my husband, we spoke about everything. And just the act of talking about it make things a bit easier.

I'm not going to lie and say it ended all neat and tidy like an episode of Growing Pains. There were some tears and struggles, but we said what we needed to say. I hope she understand that no matter what happen, we are her family and we support whatever decision she makes. So far according to her she is big c free. I pray she remains like that.

3.) Meeting Duncan Sheik In Person
On a much happier note, we met musician Duncan Sheik in person! Yeah, how awesome is that huh?

Joan with Duncan (photo taken from her phone, hence, its a bit blurry)

Duncan may be best known for his hit back in 1996 called "Barely Breathing" or for the musical "Spring Awakening" for which he wrote the music. However, he has done much more that that. My husband has been a big fan of his ever sinc e 1996. My husband introduced Duncan's music to me, and I became a fan just like him. On Jan 26, 2009, we saw Duncan Sheik perform on a new small club in out neighborhood called The Bell House (cool place by the way.) The band was mostly the same as the Town Hall show we saw in November which I blogged about. This was the official record release party for his new album/soon to-be musical Whisper House. After a second hearing of the new songs, I can say that I really like them!

My husband bought the cd at the show and, afterwards, we went to backstage door in hopes of getting his autograph on the cd. The person standing gaurd at the door told us that he would be coming out to sign autographs afterwards. When he began shutting the door, I quickly told him that we've been long time fans. The guard took the cd and handed it back to Duncan who signed it, saying it was, apparently the first copy of cd he had signed!

Even better, a little while later, Duncan did come out to sign autographs. We already had ours, but my husband spoke with him for a minute or two. Duncan was very friendly and way cool! Now, how do we set about becoming friends with him?

Duncan's signed (new) album "Whisper House"

4.) John Legend's Concert
On February 5, 2009, my husband and I saw John Legend's concert at the Radiocity Music Hall. All I can say is.....it was an awesome concert. John Legend is truly a great entertainer/performer and I love him (sorry hubby)

Ok...I promise not to be away so long next time. But Lenny really does take up a lot of my time...I forgot how owning a dog was so much work!

Cheers!