Photos – Page 15 – Not Content to Crawl

Mother’s Day

Posted onMay 10, 2016

I was feeling rather bummed Sunday morning lying in bed thinking about how neither of my step-children ever acknowledge me on Mother’s Day (not that I would expect K to since she literally hasn’t spoken to either of us in nearly four years). Basically I was having a little pity party for myself. Then I walked downstairs and was greeted with some gifts from Joe.

I should have taken a photo before moving everything, including the single red rose which I already put in water.

He also sent me a long touching email that brought tears to my eyes. I’m so lucky to have him and it really made me feel better. One of the things he said in his email was how I’ve been such a positive influence on his kids, and I hope I have been. I always took the high road even when I knew their mom was bad-mouthing us to them. I also tried my best to do things they would enjoy, and cook meals I know they would like. I don’t, nor did I ever, expect them to fawn over me or anything, but a little acknowledgement on this day would be nice. Ah well, you can’t have it all. I’m so glad I have such a wonderful husband who appreciates me and how I’ve treated his children at least.

Speaking of, Joe made us a nice big breakfast of pancakes (banana and chocolate chip, yum), scrambled eggs, and turkey sausage.

We headed over to my mom’s in the afternoon, arriving around 3 pm.

I invited my cousin over and she got there a bit before we did but no one answered the door when she knocked. That’s typical even though everyone was home as my mom was in the bathroom, my dad was in the back bedroom, and Brother # 1 was in the basement so no one could hear the door.

B (formerly known as Brother # 2) (who lives with his girlfriend at her parents house as of a few months ago) arrived a little later with some ribs and oven browns (potatos) from a place called Hog Wild. I’m not really a fan of ribs but these were really good! J (formerly known as Brother # 1) went out and got KFC too so we all stuffed our faces before going outside to play bags (aka cornhole). We also played What’s Yours Like? because that’s the game my mom chose for her special day.

At some point between games my mom opened her gifts. B gave her photos of him from his 30th birthday party and graduation. J gave her some DVDs including a season of The Middle. I wanted to get her some flameless candles she could use when decorating since she’s allergic to scented ones. Unfortunately everything I found was either ugly or had scent added so I amde her a gift instead:

She seemed to like them so that’s good.

Since we arrived so early we were able to hang out a long time and still leave at a respectable hour (9:30 pm) so we didn’t end up going to bed at 2 am.

Lilacia Park

Posted onMay 8, 2016

Every year we like to visit Lilacia Park to see all the blooming lilacs and tulips. I had been keeping an eye on the park’s Instagram account to determine when best to visit, but they totally dropped the ball. Three weeks ago they posted this:

Then there weren’t any photos again until Thursday when they posted this:

I already had a standing reminder in my calendar to visit on Friday, but we really should have visited the weekend prior because the lilacs were already disappearing from the trees/bushes. I wish they were better with updating their Instagram! The park was also much more crowded on a Friday than we expected. I’m sure the beautiful weather was somewhat to blame, but I was a little bummed that it was almost as crowded as a weekend day.

That being said, I still got a lot of great photos. We made two full loops around the park, the first one with my wide angle lens so I could get landscape photos, and the second one with my zoom lens so I could get close-up shots.

Afterwards we went to Taco Diner for steak tacos since we hadn’t gotten a chance to eat any on Cinco de Mayo. There was a concert at E’s school Thursday night and when we discussed meeting up for dinner beforehand he didn’t seem that thrilled about having Mexican so we ended up using a Restaurant.com certificate for Nino’s Pizza. He brought his girlfriend so we all shared a large cheese pizza which was pretty good.

Cubs Game

Posted onApril 16, 2016

A vendor at work was offering free tickets and parking pass to see The Cubs play yesterday. Since it was a weekday game no one else at work showed much interest so I got two tickets as did a coworker of mine. I’m not really a Cubs fan (go White Sox!) but I’m not passing up an opportunity for a nice day out for free either.

Our parking pass was for the Irving lot which is, predictably, off Irving Park Rd approximately four blocks away from Wrigley Field. It’s actually a narrow lot that sits directly underneath the L tracks. There’s porta potties in the lot too which was helpful since we needed to go and didn’t want to hold it until we reached the stadium.

We stopped at a food stand called Byron’s – Joe got a jumbo dog, I got a cheeseburger, and we shared an order of fries. It was just under $13 for everything and we stuck the bag of food in Joe’s backpack along with the three bottles of water we brought along.

Not our gate (which as K), but a different view of the stadium than we’re used to seeing

Security at the gate consisted of someone checking bags and then walking through a metal detector. As I always say about most security at venues, it’s an illusion. The girl didn’t look so thoroughly enough that someone couldn’t sneak a weapon inside. As Joe noted, she didn’t check underneath the water bottles, and the bags go into a bin outside the metal detector, so someone could easily sneak a gun inside. It’s an illusion of security and nothing more.

I’m glad they don’t prohibit bringing in your own food and snacks, though. We knew the factory sealed water bottles would be ok, but we weren’t sure about the food since their site doesn’t say it’s allowed, yet it’s not on their list of prohibited items either.

Once we found our seats (the view wasn’t that impressive unfortunately), we chowed down on our food.

Just some random people sitting in front of us

My coworker showed up after the game had started with a friend of his who seemed nice, if not a bit drunk and talkative. They weren’t there long before they disappeared for two innings. They came back armed with many beers and food but only stuck around for half an inning before leaving.

Unlike our last Cubs game 12 years ago, it wasn’t quite as cold outside. I wasn’t taking any chances, however, and wore my Cuddlduds under my jeans, brought my winter jacket, and packed my lavaseat (heated seat), a scarf, and a knitted cap with me. I also had my gloves and some hand warmers too. At first I felt silly with all that gear because the sun was quite warm, but just before the game our section became all shade and that made a huge difference. By the time we left during the 7th inning we were both pretty cold (and my heated seat cushion had cooled off even though it’s supposed to last six hours but was more like four).

In all it was a nice little outing that only cost us $13 in food and whatever the price of gas was so I can’t complain.

Ironically enough, they played the same exact team as last time – the Colorado Rockies – only this time they lost 4-1.

Weekly Recap: 04/11-04/14

Posted onApril 16, 2016April 18, 2016

Monday 04/11 – Bought new runner for foyer table at Bed, Bath & Beyond, had breakfast at IKEA (and bought a birthday gift for Brother # 1), saw a bluebird at Morton Arboretum, Marshmallow passed away.

Tuesday 04/12 – Organized batteries into one big container we purchased from IKEA, activated our new Target cards with the chip technology

Wednesday 04/13 – Watched The Saint (starring Val Kilmer) since Joe had never seen it. Forgot how bad it was, even though the soundtrack is fantastic (listening to it is what prompted us to watch the movie).

Thursday 04/14 – Cleaned the rat cages, obtained free Cubs tickets from work.

RIP Marshmallow

Posted onApril 11, 2016

Photo taken 2.5 weeks ago

About a month ago I knew Marshmallow’s time was quickly approaching (I estimate he was born sometime between mid December to late January 2014; he was a Petco feeder rat). He has always been my thinnest rat, not motivated by food like the others. I made sure to spend more quality time with him and in the past two weeks I even put him on the bed with Milo and Gizmo to play and he behaved himself.

Mid last week I noticed I wasn’t having to fill his food dish as often as before and he would only eat treats. Then he started limping a little. Well, by Friday he was not doing well. He was sleeping all the time and would barely move. He wouldn’t take food at all, and I knew he was dying. Saturday I had him on my lap for hours while we watched tv because his little body was so cold to the touch. I wrapped him up and we both sat under my heated blanket. I also crushed up some food and added water to it and fed him with a spoon. He’d only eat a little, and take a little water from the spoon as well.

By Sunday he wouldn’t even do that and wasn’t moving at all. Why is it my rats always go downhill on the one day the vet isn’t open? Ugh. I thought for sure he’d be dead each morning I checked on him but he kept trucking on which worried me because he wasn’t eating, drinking, or even really moving. He also would poop/pee all over himself and just lay in it. I would clean him up and he’d be limp, yet still breathing. It was so sad.

This morning he was lying on his side with his eyes open as if he had died but was still breathing and blinking his eyes if I pet his head. I called the vet to make an appointment to put him out of his misery. I wrestled with whether it was more humane to let him pass naturally, but I couldn’t stand knowing he was starving himself to death. He wasn’t responding to my touch and almost seemed to not be there mentally anymore. I felt so bad seeing him that way and I only hope I did the right thing.

The exotic vet wasn’t on staff until Wednesday but the vet who saw us has euthanized rats before and explained the procedure. Basically they gas the rat to cause it to fall asleep and then inject a drug into the heart to cause it to stop. We couldn’t be there for that part (nor would I want to be) but she brought him back into the room afterwards for us to say our final goodbyes. I opted not to get ashes back because what the heck would I do with them? They asked if I wanted a clay paw print created but I said no because I’m trying not to add more stuff to the house. Does that sound callous? It’s just that 1) we don’t have any from our previous rats and 2) I would feel like I should get them for all of them moving forward, and considering their short life spans, I’d end up with a huge pile of them. What would I do with them? Stick them in a box? I dunno. I hope I don’t end up regretting that decision. Besides, I have my photos and videos to remember him by.

When I had to euthanize Templeton, the only other pet I ever had to make that decision with, I opted not to see his body afterwards, but I wanted to see Marshmallow so I could get used to this process. Unfortunately rats only live about two years so that means there’s a very real possibility I will be going through this four more times this year as all my rats were born between Jan 2014 and June 2014.