there are some things i love more than clothes and shoes

i was only in my apartment for a couple weeks last year when i started looking at the beautiful faces of dogs up for adoption. a month later i was saying good bye to my first dog ever (due to bloat - if you don't know what this is, and you have a dog, please do your research. hours can make a difference, though it unfortunately did not for me). then two weeks later, outwardly protesting but inwardly eager to bravely step back into the scary, wonderful world of pet ownership.
that's when i found him, the cutest, funniest beagle-daschund-hound ever - hamlet, my little snuggler, a dog whose favorite things include stealing toys and burrowing under the covers. he was - still is, if i'm honest - a handful. but i love him, even when he drives me crazy. pets are good practice for kids, i keep telling myself. if that's the case...maybe i want to stick with pets for a little bit longer.
but of course one was not enough. i've had a dream to get a cat since i was six, quickly squashed by my brother being "allergic." fast-forward to may when i was taking hammie to get his nails clipped and saw this beautiful little white kitten at petco. he was the sweetest, most inquisitive little thing. they had named him charmin, and i promptly changed that to othello, though he is mr. kitty, mr. furrypants, mr. man, stinkhead and some other cusswords at times (he has already broken a vase and a light bulb).

and once you have two, hasn't the chaos already reigned for a while? (you know where this is going, don't you, tricky reader.)look at that face. LOOK AT IT. how can you say no, knowing the risks? we found out he was five on the way to pick him up. too late, i was and am already head-over-heels as he sleeps on the living room floor, probably getting massive puddles of drool everywhere. my mom is horrified, my grandparents call it a travesty, but i can't get over that face.

don't tell t, but i think it has to be romeo for him. my little loverboy dog.

i will get these shoes for fall

shoe boots, nine west

shoe boots are gloriously amazing in that almost-too-trendy kind of way. these i really love, particularly with the soft fold on the front - like they're heels you snuggle up in (and by snuggling, i of course mean wear with tights and a lbd).


fringe boots, minnetonka for j. crew

i have been lusting for fringe minnetonkas ever since i was a nine-year-old vacationing in petosky, michigan, and picked out a pair that my mom immediately denied me. lesson #1: unless it's a. too expensive or b. too impractical, i will never deny my children their right to fashion. lesson #2: now that i'm my own independent person, i will immediately buy myself these and enjoy the hell out of them. can't you just see these paired with leggings and a long sweater on a cool-ish october saturday? almost makes me miss college.

perfect leopard pump, ann taylor

my third must-have pair of shoes is from ann taylor - a leopard print version of their perfect pumps, which are perfect. i have a pair of in black. i had to run six blocks in chicago on michigan avenue, practically knocking over christmas shoppers to get them, never mind the swine flu i came down with later, but they are WORTH IT. srsly.

kindle my heart

yep, i already ordered one.

i was going to post this long review of the kindle, since i went back and forth over whether to get one for so long. then amazon went and surprised everyone (ok, well, just me) by coming out with a third-generation kindle well before the expected fall 2010 announcement.

kindle 3, as it's unofficially been dubbed by the techie media, has double the battery life (at least one month without wireless on), double the storage (4g) and turns pages 20% faster than kindle 2. since i ordered my kindle within the 30-day time frame for returns, i quickly shipped it back and ordered a new kindle. sadly, amazon isn't shipping kindle 3 until the end of august - and apparently a wait list has already formed because of so many orders.

sigh. i miss my kindle already. hopefully kindle 3 will be worth it - and from what i've read of the scant reviews, this will be the case.

i'll post a full review after i've had it for a few weeks, with comparisons to kindle 2. in the meantime i'm revisiting my "real" books and adding new titles to my wish list on amazon. one can never have too many books to read.

oh, and if you don't know where the title of this post came from, you've probably never seen the classic 1995 version of "a little princess." one of the most beautiful movies ever made, featuring one of the most beautiful soundtracks - including the theme song. listen to it here.