happy howl-oween

The last Wednesday of every month, Moochie & Co., the pet store in the Greenwood Mall, holds an event for your pets.  If you bring them in, you can get a discount on your purchase.  Last Wednesday was their Howl-oween Party.  CJ had to work, so I decided I'd take Henry.  After all, he was really good the last time we took him.  I also forgot that the last time I took Henry, CJ was with me and Henry had also spent the entire day at doggie day care, so he was exhausted.

When we arrived, the store was empty.  Perfect.  The associate helped me put some costumes on Henry, none of which I bought.

Then....

In came three women -- an older woman and two teenagers.  At first, the teenagers were normal, nice, whatever you want to call it.  They were letting Henry lick them all over their faces (yuck -- do you know where his mouth has been?).  Then one of the girls said, "Oh, I'd love to take him home."  Okay, fine.  You hear people say that all the time about cute babies or puppies.  It's harmless.  But she kept going.  "Will you please let me take your dog home?  Please?"  To Henry:  "Will your mommy let me take you home?"  (Mommy -- ugh.  I'm not the dog's mother.)  "Can I have your dog?"  Really?  Who asks that?  "Why sure, I haven't spent a lot of time, effort, and money on this dog.  I'll just send him home with a stranger."  Just as I was starting to think she was about ready to unhook his leash and steal Henry, they left.

Then...

In comes two women with a doberman pincher.  The two dogs sniff each other out and seem cool with one another, then the doberman bears his teeth and starts growling at Henry.  Henry, who knows no stranger and wants to be everyone's friend, keeps wanting his attention.  The owner kept saying, "Don't worry.  He's harmless."  Yep, looks friendly to me.

Then...

Enter a couple with four -- yes, four -- australian shepherds.   They were all dressed as Wizard of Oz characters.  It was super cute.  But these people were just a bit odd.  They just stood there.  Didn't look around the store; didn't talk to anyone.  Just stood there.  Then one of the girls with the doberman asks if she could pet one of the dogs and the owner was like, "Ohhh, I don't know.  Approach him slowly."  Why in the world would you bring your dog or dogs to a dog party if you knew that one or more of your dogs wasn't friendly?  (They seemed friendly.)

Meanwhile...

Henry still wanted to play with the doberman pincher.  He got so mad at me that he did the thing where he throws his paws out (kind of like how a kid can make themselves feel like dead weight) and started balking.  He got his collar off.  Awesome.  Luckily, this has happened before, and so long as I don't panic, he will sit down for me and let me put it back on.  (If it happens when CJ is around, he runs.)  All's well that ends well, but I was still envisioning Henry running through the middle of the mall...

About this time, I decided that it was time to go, but that Henry was getting a discounted toy for all the trouble I went through to get him there for a little fun.

Then...

In walks bounces a miniature poodle.  Bridget and Stella, either one individually, could have handled this poodle with one paw, it was so puny.  The poodle was friendly, but bounced right up to Henry, wanting to play with him, wanting to play with the doberman (who was still not happy), and then starts yipping really, really loudly.

I somehow managed to get out of the store in one piece, and learned my lesson for sure:  don't take Henry back there without CJ.

Happy Howl-oween everyone.

get off, get off, get off!

I'm constantly yelling at the cats to get off our stuff.  I'll give Henry credit here.  Yes, he typically annoys me at least two times per day.  But, Henry seems to prefer a clean spot to lay down.  The cats?  They don't care what's in their way, and it's really annoying.  It's kind of like how Stella must think I buy nice purses for her to relax.

new henry toy

I think I've said this before, but we pretty much love Moochie & Co in the Greenwood mall.  Their pet products are expensive, but with one exception, the toys last.  We'd rather spend a little bit more money on a dog toy that's going to last and last, than a cheaper one that will break in a week, because we end up spending more money in the long haul that way.

Our newest favorite toy is the huck ball. It's made from recycled materials and is quite durable. And as you can see, Henry loves it. And, well, anything that keeps Henry interested and out of my hair is a very, very good thing.

Although it'd certainly be appreciated, we definitely didn't receive any compensation for our endorsement of Moochie & Co. or the Huck Ball.  Just wanted to pass along info for those of you who have a dog at home that may like this product.

button magnets

You all know how I like etsy.  Awhile ago, I saw someone selling button magnets on etsy for something like $8 a pop.  They were cute, but I knew I could make them cheaper.  One day while perusing Joann Fabrics, I saw their buttons were on sale, so I picked up a few packages for about $4 total.  I paired the new buttons with some old ones of mine and some magnets I already had at home, and ta-da -- new magnets in about five minutes.  And I must say, I think mine are cuter than the $8 button magnet for sale on etsy.

guest room overhaul

Our next house project is an overhaul of our guest bedroom.  While we have had a few guests, the room really is just a catch-all for us.  I'm not saying it looked great back then, but when I took part in a garage sale in July, I decided I wanted to get rid of several of our super cheap bookcases.  They were filled with books of course, so we boxed everything up and stacked the tubs in the guest bedroom ... along with everything else.  Need a can of pink spray paint?  Done.  How about an outdated paramedic manual?  No problem.  How about a bicycle?  The guest bedroom's obviously the most appropriate place to store it!

And this was about ready to make me scream:

Awful, I know.  Embarrassing, actually.  But, I've never made any claims to be housekeeper of the year either, so it's not like this is my dirty little secret.

The problem is we have too much stuff.  I got rid of two bags of trash in just a quick sweep around the room last weekend. We boxed up the books that we just can't store now but can't stand to get rid of (because, you know, we might read all of those books sometime in the future).  We took some furniture to my parents' to store until we have a bigger house.  And I gave back the extra bed frame my parents gave me when I got my very first apartment five years ago, because it's no longer needed.

Now that the room is a truckload lighter, I'm still left with this mess:

Sad, really, how much stuff you can amass and not even realize, thinking that you might need it one day.

Stay tuned though.  Over the next several weeks, we'll be redoing the room and will keep everyone posted with the details.

And hey, this probably made everyone else feel better, because surely no one else has a room this messy, right?

coupon lover

I'm not sure why, but both cats love when I clip coupons.  And their favorite place is right in the middle of the action, usually spewing coupons all over the house in the process.  I don't get it.

best seat in the house

I'm not entirely sure why, but all three of the pets seem to like my side of the bed best of all the places to sit in the house.  Henry is definitely not allowed on our bed, but I'm pretty sure he sleeps there when we're not at home.  And as you can see, the cats are now friends -- or at least they're friendly.

legos!

CJ and I have always loved Legos.  He was always into building the sets, whereas I would build the sets once and then make my own creations.  Truth be told, if we had the space (and time) now, we'd probably play with Legos even now.

We went up to my parents' today, partially to drop off some things (I'll write about that later) and partially to go to the Indy Brick Jamboree with my mom.  There were 7 different displays, all quite large and 90% of the displays were not made from sets, which made it even more impressive.  We thought it was pretty cool, so I thought I'd share some of the pictures.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway -- with 3,000 figures!

Two streakers at the Motor Speedway

Lucas Oil Stadium -- This might have been my favorite.  The roof retracted, just like the real thing!

The Lego models had numbers like the real Colts players and had their names in tiny print on the back of the jerseys too.  The defense was out on the field, but you could see Lego Jeff Saturday and Lego Adam Vinateri on the sidelines, with Lego Peyton Manning sitting down talking on the phone to the coaches.

You can see the locker rooms near the front of the picture.  In the corner of the stadium, there was a miniature TV, just like the giant screen in Lucas Oil.

This scene was with three pirate ships (which I always wanted -- CJ has two of them though) invading a beach.

Pirates invading the beach.  Some beachgoers were being attacked, while others still lounged around, drinking fruity drinks.

The next photos are of the largest one, an original scene.  As you walked around, you could search around for hidden figures -- 6 Starbucks locations (we could only find two), Star Wars characters, etc.  In addition to what you were supposed to find, there were all sorts of other cool Lego characters.

Penguins

Pumpkin farmer shooing a cow out of his crops

Train with ghosts and skeletons inside

A stranded group of hippies with their VW van

my glass mosaic masterpiece

Back in April, my friend, Amanda, and I bought a groupon for Half Baked Pottery in Broad Ripple.  It took us four months before we could find a time to use it.  We'd both been to You are the Potter in Greenwood several times before, but this was our first time at the store in Broad Ripple.

If you haven't been before and are looking for something different to do, I'd recommend going to either place.  Basically you choose a piece of unfinished pottery, paint it, and then about a week later, pick it up and use.  Amanda and I have both made a few mugs, so we tried glass mosaics in Half Baked Pottery.  By using the groupon, it was about the same price as You are the Potter, but without, it definitely would have been more expensive.

Anyway, here's what I came up with -- I think CJ was even a little impressed!

creamy tomato soup

I'm not sure where I got this recipe, but it's one of my favorites -- which says a lot since I'm not a big soup person.  If you do make this, my one piece of advice is:  do not freeze it.

Creamy Tomato Soup
Serves 6-8

1 med. onion, chopped
2 Tbsp. butter
2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cans of condensed tomato soup
1.5 C. milk
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 - 1 tsp. basil
1/2 - 1 tsp. paprika
1/8 - 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
8 oz. cream cheese, cubed

In soup pot, saute onion in butter.  Stir in all ingredients except the cream cheese.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10 minutes.  Whisk in cream cheese until melted.

grasshopper hunting

We had a grasshopper in our house awhile ago.  Our solution?  Let the cats play.  And it was the funniest thing we'd seen in awhile.

Doesn't take too much to keep us entertained.

14 down, 10 to go.

Only 10 more months of school left.  It's still double digits.  But it's also over the hump.  It's really the small victories that count.

Last Thursday, I finished up my Organization Development & Change class.  The text was flat-out boring, so I wasn't really looking forward to sitting through six weeks of this class.  But, it was a welcome change from the horrors of Corporate Finance and a good break before Statistics.  Funny thing is, this ended up being one of my favorite classes, on par with Marketing.  I barely read the text, but what I did pull out of the text coupled with our in-class discussions enabled me to really think about my office and myself as a manager and where we all need improvement.  I actually plan to present some of my ideas to my boss.

Stats starts up this Thursday, and I can't say I'm super pumped.  I do believe it lasts right up until Thanksgiving.  That seems so far away, but really, it's just next month.  And if I can make it through Corporate Finance, I can probably make it through anything.

pass the nyquil, please

Between the two of us, by the week's end, we might just polish off a bottle of NyQuil.

Life has been particularly stressful lately.  I didn't post this on the blog when it happened, but back in August, I got a promotion at work.  It's just slightly stressful, because I'm dealing with taxpayer money.  Tens of millions of dollars of it.  It's not exactly pocket change.  So between that, CJ starting up classes and doing clinicals, and CJ's work schedule, we've been on auto-pilot since August.  (Well, I've been on auto-pilot since a year ago August, but who's counting anyway?)

I started to feel run down by the middle of last week.  The U.S. Department of Energy was visiting our office -- our third visit from the Department of Energy in a month's time -- so I was stressed out about that.  (It ended up being fine.  But when our first DOE visit was six hours' worth of questioning in one small room, I wasn't exactly excited about more visits.)  I skipped class on Thursday so I could relax.  (I really debated it.  Then I decided that I was paying for my education and I knew the ramifications of skipping a class.  And then I remembered that I was an adult.)  I really didn't do much all weekend, seriously trying to save up some energy in hopes that I wouldn't get sick, and then I got sick.

In the midst of all this, CJ sprained his ankle at work.  It's not horrible -- enough to keep him from working for a few days -- but still.

And then just as my sinus infection cleared and I finally got my voice back, CJ got sick.  He came home tonight from clinicals with a fever.  He was coughing like crazy on the couch just now, but I'm guessing the NyQuil kicked in, because he's been quiet for awhile now.

So it looks like everyone knows where they can find us this weekend -- knocked out on cold medicine, not doing a whole lot of anything.  And really, relaxing is probably the lesson we needed to learn weeks ago.

lazy day

Is this not the cutest thing ever?

kitchen, part deux

Two years into living here, and I just haven't been pleased with our kitchen.  One of our friends pointed out that the colors looked like McDonald's colors -- which was true, but it hadn't even occurred to me.  So after months of staring at three color samples on the wall, I finally caught a break in between Corporate Finance and Oragnizational Development and was able to paint the kitchen.

(I apologize now for the poor picture quality.  I broke my camera in Florida, and while we have CJ's camera, my iPhone is so much easier, but doesn't take as good of pictures.)

Before:

Red accent wall




Nearly all of our face plates are painted.  On one hand, everything blends together.  This was nice for awhile, but I got tired of it and definitely won't do this again.

After:

Wall color:  Lively Yellow in Behr Premium
Wine rack:  CJ's creation
Abbey Road photo:  The first gift CJ ever bought for me


I got tired of losing our keys CJ losing his keys, so I splurged on these super cute hooks from Anthropologie.


I bought these last spring, I loved them so much.  I especially like the "I measure my life in coffee spoons" print -- very appropriate for me and just for a kitchen in general.

Chalkboards:  I purchased canvases from Hobby Lobby and chalkboard paint.  We'll change out with new quotes as they come along.
Bar & containers:  from Ikea.  Chalk is stored in one of the containers.  Flowers 50% off at Hobby Lobby.

There's more to come of course.  This was just the first step in redoing the kitchen.  We probably just won't get to the really big stuff until next spring, so stay tuned.