A Quote From Ted Kennedy

Not to be political but somebody sent me this and I found it hilarious given the person who is saying it.



See article for reference.

This week in Cincinnati

Hi All,

This week Mariah and I have been sick with chest cold so we haven't been up to much. Brock continues to grow larger and is now in the habit of nipping and chewing on things, mostly us. We are going to start taking him to puppy training classes in March. We will post new photos of him very soon.

I would like to talk about a couple of the projects that I've been working on since we now have a lot more free time after the wedding.

HearMeBuzz.com - Back in my former life at Nielsen BuzzMetrics, I worked with large automakers to tell them what online consumers are saying about their cars, advertising and brand. Since I've moved on to Empower, I've wanted to create a website that will give consumers who are interested in buying a car an easy way to find out what other online owners are saying about the vehicles that they own. Right now I am going to be focusing on online discussion about Toyota, Scion and Lexus vehicles.

As a side note, check out littledeviants.com and want2bsquare.com. These are two websites created by Scion to advertising its new vehicles. In my opinion, Scion is one of the most creative companies that I've had an opportunity to learn about.

DigitalAscend.com - One of my co-workers and I decided to create a blog that focuses on the areas that we specialize in; search engine marketing, website analytics and consumer-generated media.

Both projects focus on two different areas. They are very interesting and should keep me busy :)

On another note, we should have wedding photos available pretty soon. We will post them as soon as we get them.

Michael

Party in my pants

Yes, that's right. Last night I went to the Cincinnati ADDY's "Party in your pants" awards. Unfortunately the party was only in my pants because Mariah decided to stay home and watch the puppy (more on that later). The ADDY's were run by the Cincinnati Ad Club to honor the best in creative advertising. The event was held at Paul Brown Stadium, where the Cincinnati Bengals or "Bungles" play. It was my first time attending a creative awards show so I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into. Overall, it was a very cool event. I went with several of my co-workers from Empower. I was really surprised to see the quality and the number of creative agencies that Cincinnati has. Apart from the big New York ad agencies, Cincinnati is very close behind in quality and creativity.

Michael

Whoever said money can't buy happiness never bought a puppy...

So I'm guessing you've all now read about our wedding and how great it was and how happy Michael and I are to now have that behind us - not that we didn't enjoy it but we're glad to move on as newlyweds rather than keep living the stress of wedding planning, as it seems to have been for over two years now!

Today's post, then, is on a bit of a different note. I thought I would take a moment to introduce you all to Brock, our new Labradoodle. Yes, it is official, he is "the one" :)

Hangin' out with Mariah - Brock loves to give "kisses" so we're trying to harness this as his first trick - to "kiss" on command.

On the Monday after our wedding, Michael, Brianna, Bridget (my sisters) and I set out for Northern Ohio at 5am. Yes, you read that correctly: we left Cincinnati less than 36 hours after the wedding! I know what you're thinking as if Mariah actually got up that early, nevermind drove somewhere!? Believe it or not, I did.

So anyways, we drove up to Wauseon, Ohio (about 3.5 hours north of Cincinnati) where we arrived at Buckeye Kennels to a kitchen full of labradoodles! Sheryl, the breeder, was great. When we arrived, all five boys from the litter were frolicking around the kitchen with her son, who helped us get to know the pups. One little guy ran over to us right away, lunging at me. Although this was supercute, I was a little skeptical, as I remembered being warned by the authors of many a doggie book and website that have said you may think this puppy is "picking you" but beware as this is often the sign of an alpha dog. So, as adorable as he was, I managed to sit back a moment and convince myself that's not really what I wanted.

Brock, posing at Michael's parents' house in West Chester - a stop on the way home

By this time, Michael had really taken to another of the puppies - you could tell he had just melted. Brianna and Bridget, not wanting to make the decision for us, helped by keeping the other pups busy as we rubbed bellies and tugged on tails to see if we could get a better idea of their temperaments. Then, we realized that one of the puppies seemed a lot quieter than the others. He was also a lot curlier than the other guys. He had been sitting in Sheryl's son's lap the whole time but I just had to give him a cuddle. Sure enough, he slowly warmed to both Michael and I and his face, slightly different than all his littermates with beautiful grey eyes, won both Michael and I over. Luckily for me, he also happened to be the most "curly" of the group, which means he has a much lower chance of shedding and causing allergies!

So, a couple hours later, we packed up back into the car, put little Brock at my feet (who passed out about thirty seconds later) and we headed for the I-75 where we would soon be meeting up with my parents and gramma. As soon as we got there, of course, everyone was excited to see the new pooch. I would like to highlight this, however, my mother seemed to be the most excited of us all! For those who don't know, my mom generally hates dogs and has not been shy to vocalize that she thinks us getting a dog is a dumb idea. Oh well. I guess we got the last laugh afterall. Not only did she think he was adorable, the next sentence out of her mouth was can I hold him please?! I can't wait to get that picture from gramma. It's so going to be framed in our living room!

Michael and Brock, taking a pit stop on the way home

After the brief introductions, we all said our goodbyes, Brianna and Bridget piled into my parents vehicle and they drove north as Michael, Brock and I made our way back south to Cincinnati. The ride home was uneventful and we didn't have to clean up a single mess. The first night was not bad at all. After about 2 minutes of whining, Brock settled quickly in his kennel and only fussed to go out twice that night. As of last night, we were only down to one 3am walk; which Michael and I alternate. Of course, I could sleep through a tornado, so Michael wakes me up when it's my turn. haha...

Between his yawn and his hiccups, this doggie has kept us in stitches since he's been here!

Brock's been slowly adjusting to city life with us and every day we see a little bit more of his personality. Although he is fairly quiet, he doesn't like to be very far from us and likes to sit at our feet or cuddle up to us if we're sitting on the floor - in fact, our feet have seen him more often than his doggie bed. At the moment, he is curled up under the dining room table, where I'm sitting typing. He's always getting tangled up under the chairs and it's quite funny to see his navigate his way out as he's waking up.

Brock, hanging out in one of his favourite nap spots... He's still not super steady on his feet though, so it's rather entertaining for us to see him get out through all the chair legs.

Yesterday was pretty difficult, as Brock seemed to have turned into a moody little dog, refusing to walk on his leash and going in all the wrong places. This was magnified by the fact that, in my attempt to get him out to pee quickly, I locked myself out of the building in my birks and sweats in the rain. Thank god my neighbour was around to let me in and the maintenance guy had a master key! I have a feeling the moodiness might have been caused by his first bath; which he seemed to hate intensely. Oh well..

The squeaky carrot has quickly become one of his favourites

Today, though, has been a different story. Not only was he a star at the vet's office where everyone oooh'ed and ahhh'ed over him (they had never seen a fully brown chocolate doodle before), he seemed to have ten times his normal energy, is learning to "let's go" on the leash, to "sit" and has now twice run up the two steep flights of stairs inside our building. Next on the list: learn to go down stairs. This has not been much of an issue outside as he prefers to roll down the little hill beside the stairs outside our building but inside, it's a bit annoying.

Anyhoo, that's about all for now. As you can see, I'm loving our new pup so far.... but I wouldn't be surprised if most of you stopped reading paragraphs ago! haha... That's alright. Well, I hope all is well with all of you. I love reading the comments that everyone has been leaving on the blog and the emails I've gotten. They are very good motivators for me to keep up with the posting!

Take care!
Mariah


PS Here's a link to all the photos we've taken of Brock the last couple of days.... Enjoy!