Category: Friends

Valentine’s Day & Puppy Playdate

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We decided not to do anything for Valentine’s Day this year because, eh, who cares? We don’t need anymore trinkets or candy. So imagine my surprise when on his way home from the airport on Thursday Joe came in with tulips and an Oreo ice cream cake. I just knew my cousin had something to do with the cake because I was talking about it with her just a few hours before on messenger. We’ve been enjoying that cake almost every night since. I have to say, though, that it seems like they add a bunch of cool whip to it to help it freeze harder. Maybe the regular Oreo ice cream is the way to go in the future. But I’m happy I finally got my first ice cream cake. I’ve been wanting one for a long time.

Friday (02/15) evening we went to Home Depot in search of a piece of particle board that would better match the cabinets. We got one from Menards but it wasn’t the right shade. Well, turns out neither Home Depot, nor Lowes, whom we had visited a week prior, carries such things. So it’s back to Menards in hopes they’ve stocked in a better matching color.

We also brought our paperwork from when we purchased carpeting from them 15 years ago in hopes we could order a small square to patch the holes Wookie chewed in the carpet. No such luck since they no longer have that particular item in their inventory. I could just kick myself for us throwing out the whole big roll of extra carpet we had sitting in the garage. Who knew we’d get a dog and need it someday? Ugh! My next step is contacting the manufacturer to find out if they can tell us whatever equivalent they have in the same color. Trying to pick out the correct color by memory is not working. Note to future self – keep at least a small sample of the extra carpeting next time to make such things easier. If all else fails I guess we’ll have to keep the plastic in that spot or go with hardwood flooring at some point, neither of which I’m happy about. I actually like carpet in the living room, but with how often Wookie throws up on it, it’s only a matter of time that it will need to be replaced. I clean it thoroughly every time but still.

Saturday (02/16) we took Wookie to K’s house for a puppy playdate and she peed on her throw carpet. WTF dog? At least she didn’t puke in the car since we took mine! She’s very confident roaming her house now, at least when we’re there. We left for about twenty minutes to get some food and she sat in front of the door waiting for us to return. We plan to leave her with K for the weekend in the spring to take a road trip and I hope she adjusts ok so we can build up to leaving her there for a week when we go to Disney. I don’t know how parents leave their kids with strangers all the time. I guess it gets easier? I know K would never do anything to hurt her but I still get nervous thinking of leaving her with someone else for an extended period.

Sunday (02/17) we were pretty lazy because it was snowing and Joe had to leave for the airport in the late afternoon anyway for a work trip to Seattle. His flight was getting delayed later and later so he changed to an earlier flight which was also delayed, but at least he made it to his destination! His original flight ended up being cancelled entirely.

I had actually won tickets to see The Price Is Right live @ the Chicago Theater for that night and ended up having the tickets transferred into my friend’s name so she could go instead. When I originally entered the contest in October I didn’t know I wouldn’t be able to attend. Figures. At least it wasn’t something more exciting. I mean, I would have gone for free but I’m not broken hearted about missing it.

Monday (02/18) Wookie had a grooming appointment and later that afternoon I went to Dollar Tree in search of a few specific storage bins that weren’t in stock. Between that and how crowded it was thanks to it being President’s Day, it was a disappointing trip.

Glass

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Last Saturday (01/19) was my birthday party at my parents’ house, if you can even call it that. For some unknown reason my mom didn’t have any desserts or sing happy birthday to me even though she does for my brothers and even Joe. I only got presents from my brother, J (B did buy me a very delicious Hawaiian pizza), although J claims some of the presents were also from my mom. I didn’t get any cards, either. I am not sure why I’m dismissed so much by my family, but I’m rather sick of it. Everyone cares about B and J’s feelings but mine aren’t even considered. I had even purchased my mom a gift for MY birthday, although once I told her about it a week or so beforehand, she insisted I return it without even giving it a chance. She’s been having trouble with her Netflix so I bought her an Amazon Fire Cube which is the only device that allows you to hard-wire your internet. I explained the situation to Woot and luckily they allowed me to return it with a prepaid label which is not the normal return process for items you just don’t want anymore. I’m done trying to help her with her technical issues. It seems she’s more interested in complaining than actually finding solutions. She’s all pissy about not being able to choose her own items so she takes it out on me when B bought her a DVD player and TV a few years back and she didn’t insist he return those. But that’s how it goes in my family – other people do things she doesn’t like but she takes it out on me.

ANYWAY….

Sunday (01/20) we went to a movie and dinner with our friends, K & E. We saw Glass, which all of us but K enjoyed. She actually turned to us once it ended and said, “is it me, or did that movie SUCK?” Um, just you. She really doesn’t use a lot of tact with things as you can see. I still love her, but sometimes it’s a bit hard to take especially when she’s ripping on something you like. I actually thought the movie was one of the best ones I’ve seen in awhile. We went to dinner at a local place called Anyways which we’ve never been to before. I had the avocado shrimp tacos which were delicious. After dinner, despite it being something like 10 degrees out, we got frozen yogurt. I’m not sure if it was the flavors I chose (pineapple and strawberry) or what but I didn’t particularly care for it.

Monday (01/21) We enjoyed a free breakfast at Chick-fil-a. Well, not entirely free. We got their egg white grill sandwiches for free but also tried their yogurt parfait and Joe got a coffee. Their greek yogurt is actually really good but it’s kinda pricey at $3.45. After breakfast we did a bit of shopping before heading home. Joe put up a new sign over the front door I had gotten at Kirkland’s late last year. He also cleaned his new office chair which I had gotten for free from work.

We didn’t do much this weekend other than run errands since it’s so cold outside.

Puppies & Video Games

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Saturday my friend K and her dog came to visit. Wookie was very excited to see them and was even kind of playing with T more than she has in the past, chasing him a bit throughout the house. She had a total fit when K had to take him outside to use the bathroom – barking and crying thinking they had left. We hung out all day chatting and playing the Wii and original Nintendo. We ordered pizza from Joseph’s for lunch and had it delivered since it was snowing. They threw in a free liter of Pepsi which was nice since we don’t keep soda in the house anymore but Joe and I were both craving it. We also snacked on brownies I made. K took off around 9 pm and we ended up staying up far too late. I think it was after 1 am before I was able to sleep which sucked because I barely slept the night before thanks to someone in my family doing something to aggravate me. On the plus side I spent two hours reorganizing the hall closet late Friday night since I was too aggravated to even attempt sleeping.

Sunday we didn’t do much at all. I didn’t even shower or change my outfit! Today I was much more productive cleaning and organizing the house. Throughout the weekend, in addition to the hall closet, I reorganized both spare bedroom closets and my jewelry. Before K came over I put together a box of donations that I encouraged her to go through and she took an old bag of mine that I’ve been hanging onto for years but never use. I’m slowly getting better at getting rid of things like that but it’s hard because sometimes I won’t use something for years and come across it and start using it again regularly. But overall I want to make sure that whenever we decide to move we don’t have a ton of stuff we don’t use to pack up.

Now I have two boxes slated to be donated and a bunch of things I want to post for sale on Offer Up. Joe has been selling stuff on there too. It still blows our minds how much stuff we continue to find to purge. It seems never-ending!

Birthday Party & Dog Park Visits

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Saturday I took Wookie for two half hour walks and to the dog park by myself since Joe was working. The idea was to tire her out so she wouldn’t be tempted to tear up any more carpet. Even so, we locked her in the kitchen just in case when we left for our friend’s party which was being hosted by his sister who lives in Joliet.

I laughed at Joe when he assumed the party would be held outside but the joke was on me when I saw their garage was set up with tables and chairs. Thank goodness I dressed warm anyway because I’m always cold. Other people didn’t seem quite as prepared and I think people should have been warned. By the end of the evening my toes were frozen, but we still had a nice time. The kids spent their time in the basement so I didn’t have to worry about that after all.

We were there about four hours and we stopped at a taco truck for a small snack with our friends before heading home. Joe went straight to bed since he had to be up early for work but I stayed up watching Netflix and hanging out with Wookie. Brother J has been harassing me about giving Big Mouth another shot so I watched a few episodes and now am hooked. I fell asleep on the couch. Sunday morning I picked up where I left off and basically watched the entire two seasons. I love Jason Mantzoukas – he has the funniest voice – and there’s so many other great actors voicing the characters.

Joe worked all day Sunday so I took Wookie for a long walk and then to the dog park my myself again. We were there an hour and a half when she started shaking from the cold so we took off. I enjoy taking her there because it’s my only socialization during the day.

I locked her in the kitchen last night but when I checked the cameras she was pacing back and forth and panting so I let her out into the living room and laid on the couch until she calmed down and went to sleep. I hate feeling anxious over whether she’s going to try and tear up more carpet by my desk. It’s not like her to be destructive anymore and I’ve been told she should see the vet to rule out any medical reason. She’s acting normal in every other way, though, so I’m going to wait and see if I catch her trying to do it again. If so, then I’ll make an appointment. In the meantime I might bring her crate back downstairs so when she’s in the kitchen she has a better spot to relax. I think she likes the bed by my desk because it’s tucked away underneath somewhat which makes her feel safe.

Ferret Show & Carpet Munching Dog

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Someone needs to slap me next time I start talking about how much I love fall. I mean, I do love the activities the season brings but I could really do without all the cold and rain. It’s not even 40 degrees today! It’s days like these I do wish I didn’t hate how brown Arizona is. I cannot wait until we’re in the position to become snowbirds so I can spend the winter months there instead of this godforsaken state. The worst feeling in the world, for me at least, is having frozen toes and around this time of year that’s all I have.

On top of that, due to the weather we weren’t able to check out the scarecrow fest last weekend. We did attend our friends’ ferret show (they have two which they enter into competitions) for a few hours since that was indoors. I also made two loaves of zucchini bread but even though I checked on them early, I still missed the super moist window so they turned out rather dry. Boo!

Joe is working all this weekend so there won’t be any glass pumpkin patch at the arboretum this year either. We have a birthday party later this afternoon to attend but I’m feeling apprehensive about that because kids will be there and I really don’t like talking to kids LOL.

Oh, and for some reason Wookie has decided to start tearing up and eating the living room carpet. It started approximately two weeks ago when she vomited bile on the carpet under my desk right next to her bed where she typically sleeps. I thought I had cleaned it up good but a few days later there was a quarter size hole where the vomit had been. I rolled my office chair wheel over the spot to prevent her from picking at it and a few days later when Joe was home upstairs working she created a second quarter sized hole! We went out that evening to Menards and bought a plastic runner to place over the holes to prevent any further damage. Now we’re kicking ourselves for throwing out the big roll of extra carpeting we had in the garage for years. Had we known we’d get a dog we’d have kept it. We can cut some carpet from the upstairs closet to patch it, but the problem is I caught her last night trying to rip a new hole somewhere in the vicinity. I was sitting on the couch and heard a strange noise and when I came around to my desk she was standing there with carpet fibers in her mouth. I couldn’t find where she had ripped them from, unfortunately.

Now I’m not sure how to handle this, but I don’t trust her being left alone downstairs anymore so she got locked in the kitchen last night. I could tell she didn’t like it but short of ripping up all the carpet and installing hardwood floors I’m not sure how to curb this behavior. I believe she’s only doing it when we are home which doesn’t point to any separation anxiety. More like boredom or her realizing she really likes it or something.