We Look Alike

We took Heidi hiking for the first time on Sunday.  She LOVED it.  I took a lot of pictures, though none of them turned out very well, but as I was going through them I did notice that the three of us are starting to look more and more alike.  I mean I know old married couples start to look like each other, and people tend to look like their pets, but seriously we've only been married half a year and only had Heidi a couple months.  This is happening way too fast.  Am I exaggerating as usual?  Check it out...

ps.  We found a dog friendly place to live today!

I didn't get to see it, and Nick says its not all that nice - 

but they will accept our little Doodle dog!  

We still need to put a deposit on it so we will wait to really celebrate.

Still Homeless

Saturday we went up to Sheffield to look at places to rent.  After calling about 30 properties during the week, in the end we only managed to view 6.  None of them would work.  As I said before, the dog is a major problem.  Nick is supposed to go up alone on Thursday (I can't go with him because we have no one to watch the dog), so I spent all day calling pretty much every suitable place we hadn't already called - about 20 places.  I have nothing to show for it.  I couldn't arrange a single dog friendly viewing.

We're at a bit of a loss.  Do we just pretend we don't have a dog and risk getting kicked out when the land lord finds out?  Does Nick move up there by himself until we can find a suitable place to live?  Do we just get rid of the dog?  These all sound like horrible options.  I would have never imagined having Heidi would be such a problem.  Now I finally understand why so many homeless people have dogs.

This picture will probably be what our DeCourcy Family Christmas card looks like this year.

The Golden Goose

"was thinking bout the goose and those dang golden eggs i want so bad"

Thank you Colin Smith for these words of wisdom.  They struck a chord with me.

Homelessness and Horses

Nick and I have to move to Sheffield in 3 weeks.  Count 'em 1.. 2... 3....!!!!  He starts work April 1st.  This is a HUGE problem because currently we have NO WHERE to live.  We've been planning on going up to Sheffield to view properties on Saturday so I've called about 30 (I swear I'm not exaggerating) properties today to schedule viewings.  Most of them are either already off the market, or more likely, do not allow pets.  The ones that "consider pets" usually stop their considering when you mention you own anything larger than a shihtzu.  It's goddamn dog discrimination if you ask me.  However, Through the grace of God I've somehow managed to score 3 viewings - but the letting agency isn't sure if they allow pets and we have to talk to the land lords about it when we get there.  It doesn't look promising.  In fact, every time Heidi's been naughty today I've been threatening to send her to Battersea Dogs Home with the other unloved puppy riff raff.  It would solve our housing problems.

In between phoning irritating agencies I stumbled across this and thought, "maybe we could just be homeless vagabonds and camp in the English countryside and ride our horses all day with Heidi in tow."  She's never met a horse, and with our luck she wouldn't get along with them, but this seems like our best option right now.

(via)

Things I Want to Do Before I Leave London - Update

With under a month left until we move out of London I thought I should post an update of my London To Do list.  I guess I'll have to make a new one when we get to Sheffield.  Oh, and for those of you that I left hanging, our offer was not accepted on the ever so freaking perfect dream home.  I'd love to post a link, but I'm not sure that is proper netiquette, so just conjure up an imagine of the most cliche, well kept, 200 year old little British cottage in a village with sheep two minutes walk in one direction and forest in the other.  Got it?  Perfect right?  Yeah well its not ours.  Oh well, first up on our Sheffield To Do List : find a place to live (hopefully to be accomplished this Saturday - except we need a dogsitter again.  eeeeek.  why do all you useful people live 4,000 miles away???).  Ahem, without further ado.....

Things I want To Do Before I Leave London 

1. Get a puppy and give it a very English name (like Harry or Charles, but I'd call it Charlie) - oh and I want it to be an Englishpuppy - like an English Setter, or Pointer, or Bulldog.    We got a german shorthaired pointer puppy and gave it a german name, but I'm crossing this off anyways.
2. Take a trip to Paris with Nick
3. Visit relatives in France (may or may not be in conjunction with trip to Paris)
4. Go to a comedy show
5. Go to a night club and rage Nick is too embarrassed to take me dancing.  I'm too embarrassed to go alone.  Note to self: Make friends in Sheffield who like dancing.
6. Go on a boat tour down the Thames
7. Go to a Stich 'n' Bitch night  I probably should've gone more than once
8. Go to Ireland
9. Go to Scotland and catch Nessi (OK we didn't catch Nessi, but we did go to Inverness)
10. Go to Stonehenge (Does anyone know if this is as boring as it looks?  I feel like I should go... but it looks so boring)
11. Go to Bath
12. Buy something antique at Portobello Road Market
13. Get a job   I got one and I got fired/quit 3 weeks later.  Does that even count?
14. Visit London Zoo
15. Visit Museums
1. Victoria and Albert
2. Natural History Museum
3. National Gallery
4. National Portrait Gallery (My personal favorite)
5. Tower of London (Crown Jewel's are here - her majesty is so BLING)
16. Take Aerial Level 1 Circus Arts classes at Circus Space Never got this done, but did get to see Cirque Du Soleil
17. Finish fixing up the house. We worked hard on this.  It's not quite  finished.  But we're moving out and so it doesn't matter now and I'm crossing it off anyways.
18. See Big Ben and Parliament
19. Take Pictures of the Guards
20. Visit Borough Market
21. Ride the London Eye
22. Go to a Musical
1. We Will Rock You
2. Billy Elliot
3. Little Shop of Horrors
4. The Lion King
5. Lord of the Rings (Most boring musical ever DO NOT SEE THIS)
6. Thriller 
7. Avenue Q
23. See a major concert at the O2 
24. Go shopping at Harrods and Selfridges

What do you think friends?  How have I done?  I think some of these things can transfer over to the future Sheffield To Do List.  So it's not the end of the world that I haven't finished all of them I suppose.  

ps.  My friend Lauren just posted her Denver To Do List which reminded me that I had this saved and ready for posting.  If you're a To Do list fiend or from Denver, go check hers out!

pss.  Do you have a To Do List for the city you live in??? I'd love to see it or post it here to share with everyone.  I think it might be fun!