Animals – Page 11 – Not Content to Crawl

Beautiful Sunday

Posted onMarch 16, 2015

Yesterday we decided to take advantage of Jamba Juice’s BOGO coupon and then head over the arboretum to drive around.

From there we visited Willowbrook Wildlife Center so I could see Dot and Dash, the resident rats, as well as some other interesting animals they keep inside, including this turtle who wanted his portrait taken.

We also walked the portion of the trail that wasn’t still squishy from all the snow melting, and then headed over to Cosley Zoo where the fox showed me what he thought of my picture-taking.

While there I also got another frog to add to my growing collection (the all red one in the back).

Right now they sit on top of my computer tower, but I’m planning to put up some shelves over my computer desk to display them along with a few other collectibles I have.

College Buddies, Free Food, & Petting Snakes

Posted onJanuary 5, 2015

Joe had to work on Friday so I spent a good portion of the day spending time with the rats and cleaning all their cages.

Before doing that, though, I called an old college friend of mine and we had a nice hour long conversation. We hadn’t spoken since last July when I drove out to visit her and meet her kids. She’s very busy with three young kids and doesn’t do social media so it’s tough to keep in touch. I sent her a Christmas card which had triggered her to write me a very sweet letter that included asking me to call her. She thought I had changed my number since she had texted me awhile back but didn’t hear back. I never got those texts though so I’m not sure what happened. I wish we were able to see each other more often. She’s one of the very few people I feel comfortable enough around to be myself and not feel weird.

Saturday it was alternating between raining and snowing so we spent most of the day at home just watching stuff on Hulu and Netflix. We got a free two month trial of Hulu for buying the Chromecast and I signed up for a month trial of Netflix. Neither seems to have any current movies we haven’t already seen, but they are great for binge-watching old TV sitcoms and clips from SNL. Netflix is especially great for watching comedy specials, so we watched the latest from Chelsea Peretti, Aziz Ansari, and Bill Burr. We also watched a movie called Peep World that wasn’t as good as the trailer promised. So many familiar faces too, but it seems like that’s how most of the IFC films go. For instance, I had been dying to see Skeleton Twins starring Kristen Wig and Bill Hader ever since I heard about it, which we rented it from Redbox the first week it was out. While it was better than Peep World, because it actually had a plot, it still was pretty disappointing. I guess I just prefer action and comedy movies instead of weird independent film dramadies.

We did leave the house briefly to get some groceries at Aldi, pick up Joe’s repaired sweaters from the tailor, and grab some Qdoba. They sent me a BOGO coupon for my birthday and a coupon for free chips and guacamole because it was also my anniversary signing up for their rewards program, and they let us use both coupons together which was nice. They were also extremely generous with the food portions, almost too much. I decided to try the pulled pork burrito bowl and there was too much pulled pork in it! It’s been awhile since we’ve eaten there so I was surprised to learn that you can get their three cheese queso and guacamole on your burrito for no extra charge. Needless to say, I had them load mine up and I swear it weighed a pound! It was so filling that I didn’t end up eating dinner, though, so that helped a bit with the calories.

Our first stop on Sunday was at Jamba Juice so I could get my free birthday drink. I also got two $15 gift cards from Groupon for only $15 total, so we used one of them for Joe’s drink. Then we headed over to the arboretum since we had always talked about seeing it after a fresh snowfall which had happened the night before. The road in the arboretum was a bit slippery in places and one of the cars ahead of us actually got stuck. Everyone in “line” had to back up so they could back up to try and make it up the small hill they were getting stuck on. Three bicyclists who were sharing the road actually had to push their vehicle to help them gain traction.

After that we decided to leave instead of visiting the other half of the arboretum. We ended up going to Willowbrook Wildlife Center. I love the two resident gray rats and got some cute photos of them.

One of the volunteers offered to take one rat out so I could get a better photo of her since their aquarium glass was smudged, but she was so hyper she would barely stay still! Her fur was so soft though! I also can’t believe how small she is compared to my boys especially since she’s full grown.

After that the same volunteer brought out a milk snake that I was able to pet. It felt a lot softer than I was expecting! Unfortunately I couldn’t get a great photo of it because it too wouldn’t stop moving.

We picked up some litter from Petco, some carrier oil from Whole Foods (to be used with the jasmine essential oil Joe gave me for Christmas), and then had lunch at Noodles & Company (free bowl of noodles for my birthday). Gluttons that we are, we headed over to Red Mango after lunch to cash in my free $5 of yogurt they put on your membership card for your birthday.

So if anyone is keeping track, so far I’ve consumed the following free items for my birthday – Red Robin burger, Qdoba burriot bowl, Jamba Juice five fruit frenzy, a bowl of pesto cavatappi at Noodles & Company, and frozen yogurt. The irony? My one goal this year is to lose weight. Hahaha!

Racine Zoo, Pizza, and Kenosha

Posted onOctober 27, 2014October 27, 2014

Saturday we decided to visit Racine Zoo since it had been four years since our first and only visit. I knew from checking their site that they were doing their own Boo at the Zoo, but I didn’t know that meant the zoo was opening an hour later than usual. The Boo at the Zoo hours are listed as 10-1 but they didn’t close at 1 pm so why would I expect the opening time be any later than 9 am like usual? No wonder we got parking directly in front of the zoo at almost 9:30 am. I’m just glad we were “running late” and didn’t have to stand around a full hour. I also don’t understand why when we first approached the ticket window the girl asked if we were there for Boo at the Zoo; when I said no we were still told they weren’t opening until 10 am. Sooo… why did it matter why we were there?

Since the zoo is right on Lake Michigan we walked down by the lake for a bit to kill some time. By the time we went back to the zoo to stand in line there were tons of kids in their cute little costumes impatiently waiting to get in.

Unfortunately the zoo is even crappier than I remember. Sure, it’s small, but what makes it crappy is how spread out everything is with not much to see. They raised their admission prices (although we got in free due to a reciprocal deal with our local zoo) yet haven’t done anything in the last four years to make the zoo more appealing. Maybe they can’t afford to add additional exhibits (though they definitely have the space), but they had even less animals on display than four years ago. The fennec fox exhibit was gone and there were like three kangaroos in the spot where I swear there were many more. Look, one of them was even dead and rigor mortis was already setting in!

I kid, I kid! He was just enjoying a little nap.

The thing I loved most about this zoo last time we visited was how the meerkat and penguin exhibits were designed. The meerkats are just funny little guys and I got some pics of them peering up at us.

I was disappointed to see the penguins were off exhibit which was ironic considering the fact that the zoo’s idea of decorating for Halloween was to paint penguins on some pumpkins around the park.

That was the extent of the decorating and it was super disappointing. We ended up visiting for only an hour and that’s only because we spent a good twenty minutes watching the lion cubs playing, which was the only redeeming part of our visit.

The photos would have come out better had I not been shooting through dirty plexiglass with some crazy reflections, but what can you do? As soon as we walked away all the little cubs got right up against the glass too. Figures! We walked back over but I couldn’t get any photos because all the kids were crowding around where they were hanging out, but I did get a nice up-close pic of the lioness.

We headed over to Wells Brothers pizza for lunch and really enjoyed their crispy thin-crust pizza, then to Harbor Park in Kenosha just to walk around a bit. I thought this sculpture was rather cool.

Loud Teenagers, Selling My iPhone, Etc.

Posted onSeptember 29, 2014October 3, 2014

Another fabulously fun weekend has come to an end. Luckily Joe didn’t have to work on Saturday so we actually had two days together.

But first we had to get through Friday night’s high school football game to see E in the marching band. It seems like every time we go to a game the crowd gets worse and worse. This time there was a teenage girl sitting next to me who kept flipping her head around so fast to look at her classmates sitting behind her that was I literally getting slapped in the face by her long ponytail! I wish I was making this up! And even though I kept moving away from her she managed to keep moving closer to me. She also elbowed me several times and kicked my water bottle onto the ground without any apology. The kids sitting behind us kept kneeing me in the back and screaming in our ears as well. By the time half-time came around I was ready to assault someone. We left the bleachers and went down by the fence to watch E’s performance before leaving. I have absolutely no desire to go to another game ever again but if we have to, I will just stand by the field instead of subject myself to the rude and obnoxious behavior of teenagers. I just can’t believe how loud and fidgety they all were! My god, it made me so anxious! I was so incredibly happy to get back to the calm solitude of our home.

Saturday started out with a trip to the doctor because Joe’s arm has been hurting him. He may have torn something lifting weights so she gave him a referral to a specialist. She also ordered some blood work and EKG because he’s 45 now and it’s been awhile since the former and I guess with his age she wanted to check his heart with the latter. We headed straight over to the hospital to get both tests out of the way since we were close and he just so happened to have been unintentionally fasting which was required of the blood tests.

Once we were done with all that we met up with a guy who was interested in buying my iPhone 4S which I had posted on Craigslist. I was initially asking for $250 when I posted it last weekend but wasn’t getting any interest because there were a ton of people selling the same phone in my area. I bumped it down to $199 and he asked if $170 was ok. Seeing as though I paid $200 and used it for three years I was fine with that. I even threw in three cases and a portable battery because they were useless to me now anyway. The guy was nice and was purchasing the phone for his niece to play games on as she’s only six years old. He was telling us how he spoils her.

It feels weird to no longer have the phone, but I’m sure I’ll get over it soon. I actually had a dream about it the other night and started feeling anxious about getting rid of it. Does this happen to anyone else where they become attached to an inanimate object? I think this is why I never ended up selling my iPhone 3GS which is now collecting dust. I pulled it out yesterday and charged it and it felt so small yet heavy! I’m actually giving it away to Brother #1 to play games on. Once I get over the weird sense of loss I will be happy to not have these useless devices sitting around the house. I’m feeling overwhelmed by all the stuff we have so anything I can find a new home for is a good thing.

After selling my phone we decided to pay Cosley Zoo a visit since I’d been itching to take some photos.

I really wish I had a longer zoom lens, though. I checked last night and Canon released a ton of new rebates but unfortunately they’re for L lenses (the big expensive white ones that typically go for $1200+). What a bummer!

On the way home we checked out the new Caputo’s grocery store that opened on Thursday. It’s now the closest grocery store to the house and technically within walking distance although I wouldn’t brave crossing the busy intersection it’s on to walk there. It’s sectioned off in an interesting way and I haven’t decided whether I like it or find it obnoxious. It was super busy which sucked but we’d probably shop there early morning (they open at 6 am every day) anyway so it shouldn’t be much of an issue. Plus it will come in handy on those occasions where I’m missing a key ingredient for dinner and don’t want to spend a fortune at Target since it’s usually produce which is way overpriced there.

Skydogz & Costco

Posted onSeptember 15, 2014

Saturday I did a little cleaning around the house and spent a lot of time online trying to choose an iPhone case to no avail. Joe had to work a full day which is highly unusual and a huge bummer.

As a result, Sunday was quite busy! We started out our morning with a trip to Starbucks. I’m usually pretty good at filing away the deal emails I get from various companies but I wanted to check out Starbucks’ breakfast sandwiches since I’d get 50% off. Plus we had money on our Starbucks card thanks to a recent Groupon deal. I got bacon, egg, and cheese on a ciabatta roll and Joe got a vanilla latte and oatmeal. The total came to nearly $10 and Joe paid with our Discover because he’s silly. The sandwich was just ok and the oatmeal is what we can make at home so we won’t be doing that again.

Our next stop was our usual Sunday trip Target to grab some groceries. After coming home and putting the groceries away, I signed up for a Costco membership through Living Social and printed out the email so we could go redeem it. But before that, we headed over to the CSBarks Dog Festival to check out the Skydogz which we’ve seen at different festivals over the years.

I’m a bit disappointed in how my photos turned out because I had to take my filter off my lens as I’ve been a bit lazy lately and realized too late that it was filthy. It was super sunny out and while lots of light can help freeze the action, sometimes there’s too much of a good thing.

We also watching the dogs on the agility course, and this one in particular was cracking me up because he’s got the cutest expression.

He was a bit too focused on what his owner was doing, as you can see here.

He kept getting distracted because he wasn’t focused on the course. It was adorable.

By the time we left the festival we were feeling pretty hungry so we stopped at a place across the street called Bulldog Alehouse for cheap boneless wings. Their garlic Parmesan ones are the best, but we also ordered Caribbean jerk because we thought we liked those too (thought wrong, although Joe didn’t mind them as much as I did).

After lunch we finally made our way over to Costco to complete our membership. We had toured Costco once years ago but concluded it wasn’t worth it for us. This time around we figured we’d give it a shot since the $55 membership included a $20 Costco card and a free rotisserie chicken and pie which I believe is a total value of about $30. So as long as we save $25 or more we’re golden.

Of course no sooner than walking through the showroom were we seriously contemplating dropping $1800 on a TV. No ordinary TV, though, but a Samsung 55″ Ultra HD TV with a curved screen and the most beautifully realistic picture I’ve ever seen. The photos on their site can’t possibly do the TV justice. You have to see it in person.

We’ve been wanting a new TV for awhile now but keep putting it on the back-burner because it’s not like our current TV sucks or anything. In fact, even though it’s not full HD (it’s not even 780p but half that, believe it or not), it’s a plasma with a great picture and we’re pretty happy with it. Until we saw the Samsung that is. But being the responsible people we are we decided to do some research before making such a large purchase, and after about 10 minutes pull ourselves away from the TV to tour the rest of the store.

Incidentally, after checking the reviews for the TV at Amazon I’m not entirely sold on buying it. I get the feeling the picture only looks awesome on blue-ray movies and the like and regular TV might look crappy on it. Plus a reviewer remarked that if you turn on the up-scaling function for regular TV then the sound doesn’t work. If that’s true that’s a serious issue and I definitely don’t want to drop a ton of money on a TV until that is fixed.

Joe found some vodka and beer for a good price, as well as some granola bars. We also grabbed some oatmeal and bottled water. Most of the fresh foods weren’t a bargain for us because there’s no way we’d eat through the enormous portions before the food spoiled. I could see how great they’d be for a large family, though. Oh, and not everything was a bargain either, but I’m sure you’d find that at any store.

In total I estimate we saved between $10-$15 on our trip and our total was $80 before using the $20 card our new membership came with. And it’s a good thing we had that card because no one told us that Costco doesn’t take credit cards! We don’t have a debit card on our main checking account (too susceptible to theft) and Joe’s debit card on his small checking account wasn’t working for some reason. Luckily between the two of us we had just enough cash to pay for our purchase and avoid total embarrassment. We have money, I swear, LOL! Guess it’s a good thing we didn’t try and buy that TV after all. ;)

After that fiasco we tried to get Costco gas for my car but Joe’s debit card still wouldn’t work so we gave up and went to Speedway. If we want to continue shopping there we’re probably going to apply for their Costco credit card since neither of us carries much cash and we don’t want to attach a debit card to our main checking account.

By the time we made it home it was after 3 pm and I threw some chicken in the crockpot and started processing my photos from earlier in the day. Around 5-ish I realized we should start giving the rats their mite treatment in order to be done in time for the Bears game at 7:20. Joe had to help hold them while I applied the medicine. They are squirmy and do not like sitting still and you have to get the medicine on their skin which requires blowing on their fur to expose their skin. At the same time I had to bleach everything in their cages as well as the cages themselves, and remove all bedding and wash it to kill any possible mites and/or eggs which cannot be seen by the naked eye. Then we moved everything out of the room and I shampooed the carpeting too since mites could be hanging out there as well.

When all was said and done it was 8 pm, our loft was a mess (because that’s were all the cages and furniture were being temporarily stored) and we hadn’t even eaten dinner yet. I got to work on making some fried rice and by 8:30 pm we were finally eating.

Today I spent most of the day doing rat laundry (I had to wash even the clean fleece I had stored in the room in case it had mites on it) and cleaning the house in general. I also got the rat room back in order since the rug dried overnight. Now I’m pooped and it’s nearly 8 pm and Joe is still stuck at work. I’ll be really happy when things calm down at his work because I’m starting to feel like I’m single and I don’t like it. Even though yesterday was a busy day it was the best day I’ve had in over a week because I got to spend it with him.