Just a test

Amigo joins the BIGGEST LOSER contest beginning October 1

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Skinny Amigo



Lots of folks have noticed that Amigo has put on a few pounds over the past year.  Comments like, "Oh my you are a BIG boy now, aren't you?" or "Wow, he's really packing on the LBs, huh?" are pretty common.  So we are doing something about it!

In keeping with their philosophy/goals of preventive medicine and wellness health care, our Vet Clinic decided to have a BIGGEST LOSER contest and we are entering Amigo in the contest. Here's how it will work.

• The first weigh-in session was today, Sept. 30 at 9:00am at the clinic. Amigo was weighed, given a goal and a plan to implement at home which included daily walks, seperating the boys when they eat so Migo doesn't raid Queso's dish and giving green bean treats instead of more high calorie packaged cookies.

Amigo weighed in at 49 lbs.  His goal is to get to 40 lbs.

• Migo was assigned a veterinary staff member Shawn to be his weight loss counselor. He will check in be checking in with us to offer support and answer questions.



Shawn seen kneeling in the photo.



• We will have monthly weigh-ins at the clinic to track his progress.

• Each month, the cat and dog owner whose pet has lost the most weight - by pecentage - will be recognized.  Go AMIGO Go!

• As they reach their goals, each dog and cat will given a small gift.  :)

• At the end of the quarter, the pet who has lost the most weight - by percentage - in each category (Cat, Dog 7 and under, Dog over 7) will win 3 large bags of Hill's Science Diet for himself & a personal training session and 30 day membership at Fitness 19 for his owner and will be featured in our quarterly newsletter. :)  Amigo will be famous!!!

How fun!  I think Migo is excited.  More updates as we progress!  Good Luck MIGO!!!





Queso & Amigo @ The Austin Beagle Brigade's Christmas Gift Exchange

Today, December 4th was the ever-fun holiday Beagle Brigade!  It was in the small dog area of Norwood Estate Dog Park at the northwest corner of Riverside and I-35. 

Here's how the gift exchange worked: All the gifts go into a bag and each dog that brings a gift receives a number.  When we start the exchange all the dogs are leashed.  The dog with the number one goes first, two goes second etc...  All the gifts are placed in the middle of the play area and when your number is called you and your dog go to the gift pile and any gift that your dog paws at, mouths, or picks up is yours!

Queso was #10 and he selected a talking treat ball.  The pups have been playing with it all over the house and everytime they bump into something, the treat ball repeats our prerecorded message, "Good boy Queso!  Good boy Migo!"

Migo was #22 and he seleted a rubber and rope chew toy.   Neither of them have really discovered it yet as they are distracted by the toy that gives treats at the moment.

Both the boys made lots of friends today.  Here was an especially cute little girl moments before a big kissing scene between her and Amigo. Needless to say, she chased him around with lots of smiles and giggles for a while delighted with all the puppy kisses.

Too cute.  Thanks to Mercedes for organzing the event.  We all had a great time.

Happy Holidays - Elf Yourself Style

What could be better to do on Thanksgiving morning?

Thousands celebrate trot's 20th anniversary



Turkey Trot Austin 2010

Jack and his Turkey!

This was not us....



Our Turkey Trot Crew.

What a great way to  kick off the holiday.

Ben and the boys.

Michelle and the boys...

The FINISH LINE

Happy Thanksgiving!

Crazy fun Birthday weekend....

Saturday morning started off pretty lazy. We went to the neighborhood cafe for breakfast eats and coffee, before we headed out for some shopping.

Interesting thing here....a cappuccino is not what you'd expect.  It is a wonderful espressso with steamed milk but with the bottom of the cup filled with chocolate, which you then have to stir into you drink.  It is delicious!

After breakfast we went to the market that we had gone to earlier when we had first arrived.  We went in and out of shops for a while just looking for things to bring home with us.  Oddly enough there were tons of jewelry stores and Halloween shops.  This was my favorite of the Halloween decorations that was on display...totally disgusting...it is a head hanging by a hook over a bucket where the blood flows down like a fountain.  Something to freak the kids out I guess...yikes!

That evening went out for an amazing birthday celebration.  We went to dinner at Terraço Itália, an Italian restaurant that it on the top floors of the what was once the tallest building in Sao Paulo.  I don't have pictures to show of the view, but it was amazing to sit right next to the window an look out over the city at night.  Click on this link to get a feel of the place:  http://www.terracoitalia.com.br/index.asp.  It was like stepping back in time with the old fashioned chandeliers and the pianists playing Nate King Cole and Frank Sinatra songs in each room.

Then we went with our friends to a night club called Boogie! Flash back to the the 1970's, 80's and some of the 90's on the disco on the dance floor. It was so much fun.  I knew when we arrived and they were playing Depeche Mode that this was going to be a fun night.  http://www.boogie.com.br/  And KB, you would be proud.  I sang Bon Jovi's "Livin on a Prayer" at the top of my lungs when the DJ played it. :)

Sunday we went to a soccer game.  Palmeiras v Cruziero. 

We were Team Palmeiras and sadly, while we dominated in the first half with 2 points, we lost our goalie in the second half and Cruziero managed to get 3 goals.  It was a somber ride home on the metro that night with the other disappointed fans, but we had a blast at the game.

What a great weekend!  :)  And the birthday adventures continue.....tee hee!

Congratulations to Ben!

Last week Ben's call center launched with much success! Here is a pic of some of the work stations and the signage in the call center.

To kick off the day, they had a team breakfast before the center started taking their first calls.

Here are some of the agents....

At the end of the day, I met up with Ben and some of the Sitel projects managers for dinner at this amazing place.  From the entrance it wasn't much to see, but once you entered it opened up into a fantastic multi-level patio with a fun vibe.  http://www.casadoespeto.com.br/

The best part was the kebab extravaganza that was the meal.  Basically, servers would come by with all kind of different meat on kebabs and you would just grab whatever you felt like eating.  In addition to grilled meats, they had bread, veggies, garlic and the like served on sticks as well.  The grand finale was the freash fruits and candies on skewers dipped in chocolate.  Yum!

Congrats again to Ben for a successful launch!  It was great to finally see all of his hard work and long hours pay off. :)