Falling in Love Is Like Owning a Dog

by Taylor Mali

First of all, it's a big responsibility,
especially in a city like New York.
So think long and hard before deciding on love.
On the other hand, love gives you a sense of security:
when you're walking down the street late at night
and you have a leash on love
ain't no one going to mess with you.
Because crooks and muggers think love is unpredictable.
Who knows what love could do in its own defense?

On cold winter nights, love is warm.
It lies between you and lives and breaths
and makes funny noises.
Love wakes you up all hours of the night with its needs.
It needs to be fed so it will grow and stay healthy.

Love doesn't like being left alone for long.
But come home and love is always happy to see you.
It may break a few things accidentally in its passion for life,
but you can never be mad at love for long.

Is love good all the time? No! No!
Love can be bad. Bad, love, bad! Very bad love.

Love makes messes.
Love leaves you little surprises here and there.
Love needs lots of cleaning up after.
Somethimes you just want to get love fixed.
Sometimes you want to roll up a piece of newspaper
and swat love on the nose,
not so much to cause pain,
just to let love know Don't you ever do that again!

Sometimes love just wants to go for a nice long walk.
Because love loves exercise.
It runs you around the block and leaves you panting.
It pulls you in several different directions at once,
or winds around and around you
until you're all wound up and can't move.

But love makes you meet people wherever you go.
People who have nothing in common but love
stop and talk to each other on the street.

Throw things away and love will bring them back,
again, and again, and again.
But most of all, love needs love, lots of it.
And in return, love loves you and never stops.

congrats dave and maureen!

brand new parents to a baby boy :) born yesterday! :)

beach bound iveys!

lots of reading, eating and laying around are in order this weekend ;) see you on the other side of sunday! we're off to venice beach!

thursday :)

ah, the week's almost over! nate and i finally have things settling a bit - he's going to work on his dissertation some tonight and i'm going to do whatever it is that i do when he's not entertaining me :) namely, working on our wedding album, reading my latest dessert book (that is to say athe literary equivalent of dessert, not a book on the subject of dessert) and whatever else i happen upon :)
this weekend we are headed to venice beach thanks to nate's aunt's condo which is a short 2 hour drive from here -- we wanted to pack up the bikes, but mine's out of commission since we've not made it to the bike shop just yet to get those brakes fixed!
rambling a bit, i know. last night we went to trivia with friends (think m.c. type guy announcing trivia questions, not little computers like i orginially pictured).
i think that's it for now :) hope everyone is well and a bit cooler than it is here in FL! i know phoenix is definitely warmer than us in the triple digits!

last time i actually blogged, it was MAY!

and now it's june 18th- which incidentally, is my four month wedding anniversary :) nately and i celebrated with some tasty mini beef wellingtons for dinner and a busy day!
since it's been so long, i guess i'll work backwards ;) this morning we went out for brunch downtown (tasty stuff! and $2 mimosas!)
yesterday evening we spent in since we wore ourselves out! we went biking on the west orange trail in the morning with some friends from work and had a great time :) the first 7 miles, i was really worn out and had everyone finish out the last couple of miles without me. i thought "wow! i'm even more out of shape than i thought i was!" but i did a bit of detective work and figured out my front brakes were essentially "on" the entire time-- must have been banged up when the bike was moved! so on the way back, nate rode my bike with the front brakes detached and we all had a much easier time of it ;) on the bright side, i got a much better workout!
last weekend anna and rick were in town with anna's family, so we had a great time at the park with them over the weekend and then spent an evening in winter park at dinner with them :) we took them to one of our favorite orlando discoveries, a wine bar where you have a smart card and the wine is dispensed and charged off your smart card ;) 1 oz, 3 oz, or 5 oz! it's quite an entertaining rip off and a nice way to pass an evening.
ooh i left out a great highlight :) nate took me on a surprise data last week to a "cinema cafe" -- v. cool -- you eat dinner in comfy chairs and tables in what otherwise is a normal theater (you know, big screen, big room) -- we had a tasty pizza and wine while watching prarie home companion, which i really enjoyed :)
yaaaaawn... okay, time for bed-- and since it's 11:30 pm on sunday, i've kept my weekend blogging promise!

baby steps!

in my quest to update the blog, i've posted pics of rick and anna's trip to FL, as well as an outing to downtown disney for work (a rainy one!), and our foray onto a great nearby bike trail! :)

kettle? it's bri. you're black!

title shamelessly hijacked from mark's comment below ;)

yes, i need to blog -- and i will! this weekend ;) expect a looooong update and details on my love-hate relationship with orlando :)