Month: June 2017

Sibling Weekend

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Saturday both my brothers and B’s girlfriend came over to spend the day hanging out. R texted me at 11 am to let me know they were on the way and I timed it so Wookie and I were finishing up a walk when they pulled up. She instantly recognized J and ran around him excitedly while peeing. She did the same for my other brother and R. It was so cute and nice to see her not being standoffish at all.

A little while later we went out to lunch to Bulldog Alehouse. Joe and I paid but it wasn’t bad since we had a restaurant.com gift certificate our friends gave us quite awhile ago.

After lunch we stopped at Half Price Books and then hung out at home for a bit before going to a local park. We all piled into Joe’s Escape so I sat in back between my brothers with Wookie on my lap. On the way back B treated us to some ice coffee from Dunkin Donuts. I usually get the Vanilla Swirl but tried the Hazelnut and it was good, other than the fact that I suspect they didn’t give me decaf as ordered. It wasn’t marked on the cup as such anyway.

I grilled burgers for dinner and later that evening we played Jenga and Aggravation before everyone left around 10 pm. The time went by so fast even though we were mostly just talking a lot of the time.

R and B are probably going to come over and watch Wookie next month when we have two day-long events to attend. Since they now have a dog of their own R would rather watch Wookie at our place which is fine by me. I know she’s trustworthy and I feel better about her being in my house than hiring a dog sitter who, while I’m sure is safe, is still a stranger. That’s a load off my mind, actually, because I didn’t want to keep Wookie locked up for 12+ hours two days in a row. I think she would be ok, but it’s certainly not nice.

Father’s Day Weekend

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This weekend was the Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas and Redbull TV was streaming selected acts live so we tuned in on Friday and Saturday night for a few hours. Unfortunately all my favorite acts played quite late and with the two hour time difference I couldn’t stay up until 3 am to watch them (assuming they would have even been featured on the stream). It was still pretty cool, though.

Sunday the kids came over to celebrate Father’s Day. They got Joe a nice thick cocktail glass that has drink recipes on it.

In addition, they gave him a $25 gift card to Red Robin and a $25 gift card to Starbucks. I was impressed at the thoughtfulness of their gifts.

I grilled some burgers, brats, and a hot dogs and we had corn on the cob and some cold salads and chips. I made brownies for dessert. I think I may have finally learned the secret to a great burger –

Use fresh patties (we got the Market Pantry ones)
Bring out of fridge about 10-15 minutes before attempting to grill
Sprinkle liberally with salt and fresh ground pepper
Grill on medium low heat – it will take longer but you’ll get an evenly cooked burger that isn’t dry

The kids thought the burgers were delicious so I’m pretty psyched. My biggest fear is serving an under-cooked burger so I often overcook them to compensate. They came out just right yesterday thought. Nice and juicy but still cooked. Leaving them out before grilling wasn’t intentional but when Joe went to turn on the grill he realized the propane tank was empty so he and E went to the grocery store to exchange it.

After dinner we played bags for awhile and then two games of Clue: Big Bang Theory edition. By the time the second game was over it was around 9 so the kids left and we went to bed, although I had a hell of a time falling asleep since we were up late the two preceding nights.

Weekend

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My off balance feeling came back with a vengeance recently so that sucks. The back of my neck is super sore and my head feels like it weighs twice as much as normal. Since I’m sick of going to the doctor and getting tests that come back normal I’m just waiting it out. At some point it will go away like my other transient ailments. 

Despite feeling like crap we still took Wookie to a pet wellness event at a local pet store on Saturday to get a bag of freebies.

Joe also shampood the living room carpet Saturday night since I’ve noticed the bottom of our socks getting dirtier quicker even though I clean the house more often and more thoroughly than ever. Having a dog just makes it get dirty faster. We used vinegar and got water to clean the carpet so it’s probably not as clean as a soap would have gotten it but I didn’t want to use the bottle we already had since there was no indication it’s pet safe. 

Sunday we were going to go to the Festival of the Fox but between me not feeling up to walking and how hot it was we opted to skip it. 
That afternoon I called Nicor about a possible gas leak. There was a strong mothball smell in the laundry room and kitchen and after some googling one person said it turned out to be gas. I only called to be safe and they sent someone out to check but everything is fine. This smell seems to materialize every year when we run the A/C so either it is somehow creating the smell or the neighbors are using mothballs. I suspect it’s the latter which sucks because I don’t know how to address it. I have to wonder if it’s the source of my headache and dizziness though. 

Sunday evening we treated E and his friend to dinner at Bakers Square since they were in the area. I haven’t eaten at one in a long time but it wasn’t all that. The reuben I had was pretty good as was the strawberry rhubarb pie but my stomach hated me the next day.  Plus the service was slow. 

Food & Stuff

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Nothing too exciting happened this weekend. I took Wookie to the vet on Friday just to go over some concerns I had. She’s fine, but I ended up getting her the canine flu vaccine since I’d like to take her to some puppy play places or dog parks soon. She has no dogs to play with and I can tell she would enjoy that (with the right dog, of course).

We also got some more food for her, and with coupons paid less than $7 out of pocket and that included two toys. Pretty nice deal!

Sunday Joe worked on changing the front brakes on his car while I did my normal Monday cleaning a day early. I had skipped it last week so it was due. Prior to that we went to check out the Taste of Wheaton and had a couple of tacos from a booth called Taco SomethingorOther (shoot, can’t remember) which we’ve never heard of before. They were ok but nothing special for $3 each. We ended up picking up McDonald’s on the way home for lunch, LOL. I don’t think we’ll bother with that fest in the future – the “craft” booths are boring, they no longer allow dogs, the music is usually country, and the food booths are pretty standard fried food fare and not a representation of what he city has to offer. I can only imagine the cost must be too high that no local restaurants ever seem to participate. It was hot and humid too so we didn’t stick around for long.

Dinner each night over the weekend consisted of Lou Malnati’s deep dish which we ordered Friday night since we had a $25 certificate that expired at the end of the month. I’m sure that’s not doing my weight any favors but damn is their pizza good! I like how we can get 3-4 meals out of one large pizza if we can stop ourselves from having more than one slice each meal. We actually had two each on Friday which is why there’s none left for tonight.

I’m getting ready to go have lunch with a friend shortly so that’s it for this boring weekend update.