cutie pie

This is Millie, and she turned one year old today! It was so fun to have her in the studio -- you can't see in this photo, but she's SUPER smiley and man, did she dive into her birthday cake for the camera. It became super helpful to have a shower in the studio, which I never anticipated before! Ha!So if Millie is so dang fun, why did I choose this photo? It fit my mood better today. It's been a rough one because, well, I miss my dog. Since I was having a small child around today (that was not my own), I sent Magda off to doggie daycare. What I didn't anticipate was how weird it would be to be so alone in my house.I counted back, and I haven't been the only creature at home since 1997. Yeah. That's a long time. And while Merlin wasn't the most active of pups, it became painfully obvious how much I paid attention to his trips to the water bowl, his raspy bark when the mail was delivered or just how often I would stop by to give him a good scratch between my work projects.I'm also hyper aware of all of this because the old man's ashes arrived yesterday. It is so sad to think a soul that large comes down to a box that tiny in the end. Sigh. I know grief takes time... but today was tough.OK. Enough of that. Jamie called to try to cheer me up with the brand new Star Wars trailer (does he know me or what?), so you should watch that. And this also fascinated me today: Wait until you see what all The Rock eats in a day. AH-MAZING.