Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone! We hope that you all spent New Year's with friends and family, and rang in 2012 in style (even if it was with a nip party under the bed!)  Phoebe doesn't like fireworks, so she wore her Thundershirt, but even she had a pretty good time! 

2011 was a pretty good year, and we are happy to have made many wonderful friends in the Blog-o-sphere, and hope to make many more this year.  

Now, on to business.  Mom's back attacked her on Saturday, and she is still feeling a little under the weather.  But she'll be back later on to announce the winner of the drawing we are doing for Scout's Chip-In.  

Meanwhile we'd like to thank Ann and the Zoolatry gang for our lovely Shining Star that they sent us.  It meant a great deal!

ALL of our blog friends are stars to us!  

2012 will be here before we know it ...

And what better way to start off the New Year than with a brand new calendar?

Happy Monday, everyone!  MP here!  You know, as a kid, I was one of those nerdy types who, pretty much all the way up through high school, couldn't wait for the first day of school.  Don't get me wrong, like every other kid I bemoaned the loss of my summer freedom, long days that seemed almost endless because the sun didn't set  until 8pm.  New school supplies (and new school clothes) were the trade-off.  I frankly reveled in shopping for school supplies as a kid.  Freshly sharpened number two pencils tucked snugly inside a new pencil case, brightly-colored folders inside a new Trapper Keeper (do they even have those anymore?) had the power to delight me.

As did the concept of a fresh start.  Ah, how we all love those.  And as a kid you got two ... one at New Year's like everyone else, and one on the first day of school.  (Three, really, counting your birthday, which, as we get older, we tend to stop celebrating with quite as much unadulterated joy.)  As an adult, however, the opportunity for those "fresh starts" really comes only once a year.  So as a result, I now look forward to the choosing of the next year's calendar in the same way I used to look forward to the selection of my school supplies as a child.  

And yes, I know that there is a calendar on my phone, and one on my computer, and yes, I do use them, but I also like a traditional desk calendar for my office, and an "old fashioned" calendar at home.  What can I tell you ... I like to look at pretty pictures.  So sue me!  

I mentioned last week that a friend's dog is the cover dog for a calendar featuring rescued pit bulls, so obviously that will be my calendar of choice this year.  But if that were not the case, I would have a really hard time choosing between these two calendars:

Photo credit: The Unexpected Pit Bull


and this one:

Photo credit:  Shreve Stockton / The Daily Coyote

So tell me ... am I the only one who gets excited about this kind of stuff?