Category: Friends

Transition Piece(s) & Oktoberfest

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Friday after Joe came home from work we took care of some errands which included taking donations to Savers (remnants of what we weren’t able to sell at the garage sale last year plus some clothing I no longer wanted) and recycled our old lightbulbs at the Lowes before shopping at Costco.

Saturday was our busy, but fun, day this weekend. Joe installed the transition pieces in the morning and I think they look pretty good. 1st photo is before and 2nd one is after.

The only thing that annoys me is that crease in the carpet. It was there before, though, I just forgot about it because we were using an area rug to cover the spot to stop Wookie from picking at the carpet. I just have to get used to not stepping on the transition piece directly which for some reason I tend to do.

Saturday afternoon we went to our town’s Germanfest (aka Oktoberfest) with our friends K & E. I had a schnitzel sandwich and Joe got the pork shank which he thought was good but not worth $16 for the plate. Between our food and his single beer we spent $33! It was hot outside and even though we were in a tent away from the sun it was still too warm to spend much time there, plus the band was hella loud, so after an hour we headed back to our place to cool off.

We played a game called Loaded Questions which our friends brought over, had dinner (Joe made meatball sandwiches), and watched Popstar. I don’t think our friends enjoyed it as much as we do, plus I was annoyed by the fact that the Blu-ray wouldn’t load. Luckily the set came with a DVD version but that sucks because Joe bought it for me back in January for my birthday and I hadn’t opened it so there’s nothing I can do about the issue now.

Our friends had fun interacting with Wookie. She has gotten better with people in general, but especially those she remembers, so she didn’t bark at them when they first came over. In fact she wouldn’t go to sleep after they left because I think she thought they were still there. I had carry her through the house to show her it was empty before she’d calm down. I think because she didn’t nap most of the day she was overtired, but she made up for it on Sunday with several naps.

Sunday I made chili in the crockpot and Joe made cornbread in his cast iron skillet. Both came out delicious! Now that it’s football season our Sundays will be mostly at home days although I plan to get to the arborteum soon to check out the changing leaves. We can get there early and be in home in time for a noon game though.

Things I organized over the weekend:
The portion of the garage in front of my car including the shelving unit
My marbles and candle stuff in the hall closet
The pet room

Weekend Recap

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Friday we had our friends EN & KM over for a movie night. We ordered deep dish from Lou Malnati’s and watched Grandma’s Boy which they both loved. Wookie was a bit apprehensive when they first came over but by the end of the night she was playing with them and actually wouldn’t stop going over by EN and getting in his face.

Didn’t do much Saturday except go shopping. We hit up Target and then later took Wookie to Petsmart (where we scored a free bag of food) and Petco looking for a new travel carrier since we’re flying out to Arizona soon and her old one is way too small. We almost got one at Petco but I’m glad we didn’t because I found the smaller version of the same carrier on their website for less and ordered it Saturday night. We also stopped by Chipotle to pick up food since I had a BOGO coupon.

Sunday, as noted in my other entry, was Indiana Beach.

Today we did a little more shopping and then went to the dentist for my cleaning which I had rescheduled from June because I was in too much pain at the time. Back then it was mostly my neck that was stiff and my top back teeth were sore and now it’s my teeth and I have ringing in my right ear. The x-rays the dentist took didn’t reveal a cause; he thinks it’s my sinuses even though I don’t have any drainage. I really should see a doctor, but I’m just feeling discouraged right now since when I saw my ENT two months ago he didn’t think any of my issues were in his realm. So I saw my primary care who gave me a steroid which helped resolve the neck issues but not the overall pressure in my face/head. I think I need to find a new ENT but I’m so tired of seeing doctors. At what point do I just give up, deal with the issues, and hope they eventually resolve on their own?

That being said, I’m contemplating being tested for Lyme Disease now that Brother # 2 was diagnosed with it since he’s had less symptoms than I have. A Google search has revealed that it’s possible my sudden increase in panic attacks and the ear ringing could be caused by Chronic Lyme. I was going to call the insurance today to try and find out how much the test would cost but at this point I don’t care because I need to at least rule it out as the cause of these mysterious ailments I’ve been having lately. I’m so tired of one medical issue after another. Rarely does a day go by that something isn’t feeling weird or causing me pain. It has made my already intense fear of dying worse than ever because I worry there’s something really wrong with me that no one has been able to diagnose yet and I’m going to die because it wasn’t caught in time.

Milwaukee Brewfest 2017

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Saturday my brother came over to watch Wookie so we could attend the Milwaukee Brewfest in Wisconsin with our friends KM and EN. We drove up together in Joe’s car and our friends were kind enough to treat us to lunch at Oscar’s Bar and Grill (which we first discovered back in February 2016). I was feeling off thanks to lack of sleep courtesy of a severe panic attack episode the night before so I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich and ended up eating it sans bun. They have awesome fries but I went easy on them since I didn’t want to trigger any issues. I felt weird enough having to urinate so often including making a pitstop on the ride up even though it only takes about an hour and a half. It was a little longer, however, since we ran into traffic jams like three times. Luckily we left plenty early enough and still arrived at the fest before it began.

The on-site parking was only $5 which is awesome. Even though KM and I had designated driver wristbands ($15) and mostly sat around chatting and people-watching, I still had a pretty good time. Joe and EN certainly enjoyed themselves and even though there were 100 different vendors there only managed to sample about twenty beers. They had food trucks there which was cool since KM and I weren’t keen on the hot dog meal that came with our admission and gave ours to the boys. I got a personal pizza from the Palermos truck and KM got some cheese curds. Both were good.

This is the souvenir glass they gave to everyone at the entrance

We ended up leaving around 6:15 since I still wasn’t feeling so hot and KM agreed to drive Joe’s Escape (I was supposed to). We stopped for even MORE food (LOL) at the Brat Stop since neither of our friends had ever been there before. I didn’t actually get anything to eat since I wasn’t hungry. I believe by the time we got home it was around 10 pm and Wookie had been by herself about 5 hours by that point since B took off just before 5 pm. I’m so glad he and his girlfriend are ok with watching her occasionally since I don’t like the idea of leaving her with a stranger or in a boarding facility. Not sure what we’ll do when we want to go on an actual multi-day vacation, though. I hope by then they have a house (they are currently looking) and their dog gets along with Wookie so she can stay with them. Fingers crossed.

One of the cool things about the fest is they included a free ticket to Germanfest which was going on just 2 miles down the road. We didn’t get to take advantage of that, but if the two fests coincide next year, the plan is for KM and I to have Joe and EN pass those tickets to us through the festival fence and take an Uber over there. We’ll come back to pick up the boys when their festival is over.

Annual Party

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My bookbag smells like a campfire despite using Febreeze on it. Just one of the drawbacks to sitting in front of a bonfire for the evening.

Sunday was one of the cooler days we’ve had lately and it was our friend’s annual party. She always holds it on the last day of our city’s Summerfest so we can walk a few blocks from her house to the park to watch the fireworks. They screwed them up, however, and we never got a big finale. They later posted online about them being deemed unsafe. 

I was really glad I brought extra clothes, although before we lit the firepit I was still freezing. Other than that and having to immediately shower when we got home around midnight, it was a great night. Lots of laughs and our friend whose wife passed away two years ago from cancer was even able to join us. Last year he met up for our pre-party lunch but went home afterwards  due to work obligations the following day.

We didn’t get to bed until sometime around 2 am since we wanted to let Wookie run around after having been cooped up all afternoon and evening. Even though we didn’t sleep in too late on Monday we were both exhausted and unmotivated. Other than some laundry and a trip to Aldi to take advantage of a rare coupon to celebrate their grand  re-opening, it wasn’t a very productive day.

Doggie Eggstravaganza & Easter Weekend

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Saturday (4/15) we met up with my friend K and her dog Teddy at Wilder Park in Elmhurst to attend their dog event that included an egg hunt, parade, etc. There was a kids’ egg hunt at 10 am with the dog event scheduled for 10:30 am. Street parking was completely full so we parked in the nearby college lot just a block from the park. I texted the location to K and with incredible timing she pulled into a spot just behind us in the lot.

By the time we made it to the specific location of the egg hunt it was just starting (two minutes early, according to our phones) so we missed out on that, although this nice woman each gave us one of her eggs which was filled with little dog treats. Immediately after the “hunt”, which lasted all of a minute, maybe two, they announced the winner of the costume contest. This was very confusing since the event supposedly just started not five minutes beforehand. If there was in fact a dog parade I have no idea where that was either. In addition, by the time we made it over to the sponsor tents most of them were either out of treats or packing up already to leave. It was very strange and I can’t help but think they started early and we were the only ones who didn’t know about it.

All that aside, it was still fun to see all the dogs and let Wookie socialize. She was pretty good with the dogs but not so much with people who all wanted to pet her because she’s so cute. We met a British man and his daughter who had two Yorkies from the same litter and spoke to them for awhile and then later on we met a woman and her boyfriend/husband (not sure which) with their cute Shih Tzu mix named Parker. She and I spoke at length about dog stuff. I gave her Wookie’s Instagram info and she started following her which is cool. I think it would be nice if we could someday get back together for a puppy play date but I’m not sure whether I should pursue that or not. Her little guy did like Wookie, though, even though she was pretty aloof toward him.

After most of the dogs were gone we went to Hamburger Heaven for lunch before parting ways. Joe and I dropped Wookie off at home, went to Costco for a few things, and I baked some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and made my homemade mac & cheese in preparation for Sunday.

Sunday morning (4/16) I tackled baking brownies and a carrot cake. I love love love the cake but every time I make it I remember why I only do so once a year – it’s very time consuming! It took even longer than normal this time around because Wookie threw up bile and afterwards kept coughing every so often like something was caught in her throat and I was very concerned. She did it multiple times in the morning and early afternoon but then it went away so I’m not sure what was going on. I’m a hypochondriac enough when it comes to my own health issues – I really don’t need her to have any since she can’t tell me what’s wrong. I checked around the house to see if anything was out that she could have gotten into but nothing looked out of place so I don’t know what the deal was. I had to check upstairs too since I decided earlier in the week to teach her how to use the stairs and she took to it after only one attempt! Had I known I would have waited a little longer to introduce them to her since now she takes every opportunity to run up them! She’s almost seven months old now so I wanted to ensure she wouldn’t be scared of stairs. Guess I shouldn’t have worried about that at all!

E let Joe know that he had a job interview at McDonald’s Sunday afternoon so he and his sister and ES arrived just after 3 pm instead of between 2-3 as originally planned. K brought homemade cookies which made Joe and I was excited until she later said they were leftovers that she had originally baked for the kids she takes care of at her job. *Sigh* I don’t think the kids realize that admitting they are “re-gifting” is hurtful. It would be nice if they actually brought us a gift that they specifically picked out and/or made for us instead of us being the afterthought. Maybe one day.

Anyway, other than that we had a nice holiday. Everyone enjoyed their Easter baskets, including Wookie (Joe and I exchanged ours earlier that morning).

E's Easter Basket

K's Easter Basket

Joe's Easter Basket

Nicole's Easter Basket

Wookie's Easter Basket

After dinner we played a few games of Aggravation; it was cute how K suggested we play a few minutes before E also brought it up. Around 8 pm the kids left because E’s allergies were acting up and he was doing the driving. It was nice to spend the actual holiday with family even though I was exhausted by the time they left. I overdid it on the socialization this weekend and I feel like shit today even though I slept until 8 am.