I wish I had my camera!

There was the strangest casheir at Walgreen's this morning. When I got up there she was trying to get me to take an empty Swisher Sweet cigar box because she thought I could make it into a purse. After convincing her that no, I did not want a cigar box purse, and no, I was not crafty enough to do something like that she started ringing me up. This was a lady in her 40's to 50's who you could tell had done her share of smoking and drinking and generally enjoying life too much. She was someone you could see in a bar in the country - bleach blond with the roots growing out and too skinny and too wrinkly for how young she was. The funniest part?

Her nametag.

"Cougar"

Travel Edition

Chris and I recently returned from Florida and Mickey and Disney and MAGIC, PEOPLE! Everything Disney apparently shrunk since I went there 16 years ago. Don't you hate that feeling. Oh, and it was hot. Like toss me in an oven hot. I spent most of our first day there running from shade spot to shade spot and sweating. And then we went to the water park, which was the only place I wasn't hot and I got a sunburn. Ouch.

Contrary to what that last paragraph sounded like, I really did have a good time. We were there with Chris' family and I got to hang out with them, which is a rarity, and hang out with my nephews. I would totally go back, but in the winter next time. We stayed at the nicest, most amazing hotel I have ever stayed at. The rooms were spacious and comfortable and the pool had a waterfall and nightly swim-in movies. I have to thank Chris' mom for taking us on this trip! Did you know Winnie the Pooh and Tigger were Disney? I had no idea. Disney has the monopoly on childrens everything.

Oh, and by the way, we're going to freaking Italy people! That's right, Italy. With the food and the wine and the amore. Yes, that Italy. We will be there in T-3 months and counting. I'm nervous about the plane ride because I have a wee bit of anxiety sometimes (ahem.), but I am so excited to see the colliseum and Caesar's (old) grave, and Florence and Venice and ride in a canal and eat a boatload of pizza. I can't wait.

We also just got back from the cabin over the 4th of July weekend. It is a sad fact that I haven't been to the cabin this year since we put in the dock back in May or June or whenever. If I would've blogged about it maybe I would remember. Let this be a lesson to me to keep this thing updated. I digress. It was great to hang out with my extended family and go tree hunting with my dad. We did find a tree, but many people and trees were almost injured in the process.

Maybe I stink?

We came back from the cabin and the dog and I promptly got sick. Me - some sort of cold/throat thing, which is awful because I haven't worked out for 2 weeks prior to this, and now that I finally feel up to working out, I'm not up to working out. I keep telling myself my body knows what's best, but I wish it would hurry up with itself. Daly - puking/pooping/refusing to eat. Which is typical of Daly when he's had too much fun....or when my grandma feeds him too many table scraps!

Just this side of nothing

I started this post on Earth Day...I'm finishing it in June. I've been just a little busy, although I think it's funny that every time people ask me what I've been up to all I can come up with is oh, nothing. So here is my nothing.

Ignore the fuzzy thing at the bottom of the picture. I was simply too lazy to crop it out. It's a miracle I'm even updating this blog really.

Something for the spirit of Earth Day! Chris and I went out and bought ourselves a rain barrel. Chris headed up this effort almost all by himself, and I was thoroughly impressed. Our adventure started by driving in circles around a port-a-potty graveyard looking for a lady from craigslist who said she had wine barrels. Silly us, we had been looking for an office of some sort but she was stationed out of a giant cage. We got to pick out our own wine barrel from about 80 of them, and you can't imagine the smell! It was a little much. We picked a Cabernet Sauvignon from some region in France, which happens to be my favorite wine, but really it was the best barrel there. We drove home praying not to get pulled over while smelling like a winery....and Chris set it up after only one trip to Home Depot (and that was an earth day miracle people). It rained the next day, and not very much, and the barrel was half full! Then it rained for real and we got to see the overflow spout work. It was very dry for about 2 months, and we watered all of our plants with this, and still didn't run out (it's a 55 gallon barrel). For about the first month though all of the water that came out was slightly red and smelled like cabernet, which may be a marketing ploy because I find myself craving red wine. Or else Jesus is in our barrel. I figure we will have the best tomatoes ever because they've been watered by wine. I'll let you know in a month or two.

Fashion Cents

I splurged and bought a new dress. I have nowhere to wear this dress and no need of it, but I saw it and I love it and it is just so freaking cute!

So that is me, just out of the shower, trying to figure out what goes with the dress (definitely the green towel). We went out to dinner Friday and I wore it with jeans, but I would really love some boots. The dress is fun and kind of 60's and needs tall boots. But I (and by "I" I mean my right big toe) found a hole in my only pair of black work flats this morning. Those need to be replaced stat because I am so done with heels. I'm all about COMFORT. Except when it comes to that dress and I would suffer in whatever looks good. Any advice? I really don't know what to wear with it, which is probably why it's been sitting in my closet for 3 months before I just did the jeans thing.

You're probably wondering why I'm in a cheerleader stance. That's because we do not own a full length mirror in our house so I am straddling the bathroom sink with one foot on the toilet and one foot on the tub and OH MY GOD DON'T FALL. Which is a serious concern because have you seen my bruises from falling down a staircase? Um yea....I've been so very coordinated lately and have fallen many, many times. Everything hurts. So it's a good thing I wore jeans with the dress because the bruises and the bumps and the oh yea(shhhh..) unshaved legs.

Oh yea, dinner! We ate at the Craftsman on Lake Street. It was good. For the appetizer we had the cheese plate (always a good thing). Chris had a steak and I had the gnocchi - which was amazing. I've never had homemade gnocchi before, and this was the best gnocchi ever. I wish I could cook like that. But we probably won't be going back there often because HOLY EXPENSIVE. And we didn't even get dessert.

Mi Casa

I was kind of depressed about money this week. We talked to someone about refinancing and decided not to do it, mostly because not much, if any, equity has built into our house. We're not totally sure about that because of all the updates we've done, but we'd have to spend some money to save the money and it probably just isn't worth the risk (or do I mean heartbreak?) of having it appraised. So anyways.....

I walked out the door to get my paper this morning and realized that I had been taking it for granted lately that it would still be there. Over the last four years living in our house my paper has always been on the front stoop on Sunday mornings. A little thing, but it wasn't always this way.

Chris and I lived in apartments for a little over four years before moving into our house. We started getting the Sunday paper not long after we moved out of our parent's houses but getting the paper (or anything, really) delivered to an apartment was kind of like an easter egg hunt. Deliveries, and the papers, were always left in the communal area that was also unlocked to the public so whoever got there first got the best stuff. I'm not saying this happened constantly, normally our paper would be there. I'm an early riser, so that definitely helped. But there were many mornings when the paper just wouldn't be there. So we'd have to call the Star Tribune and they would come out and bring us one personally before noon. They never complained, even though I'm sure they delivered that first paper. I think one of my favorite mornings was when someone had taken my paper but left the bill for it on the top of my mailbox (our paper bill comes with our paper). Thoughtful! Oh, and the time Chris went down and found a drunk using our paper as his pillow....we decided to pass on the paper that day.

I think I wanted to write this because of all the press about declining home values and maybe it's not the investment it used to be. Truthfully, I don't believe that home values will decline forever. Everything will reach balance again, it has to (nature abhors a vacuum, right?). I really do hate doomsayers. But what I'm really trying to say is that owning a home is, well, priceless. To us anyways. It's about the afternoons in our backyard on OUR deck grilling out, or being able to paint (and paint and paint again) our walls any color we damn well want. It's about having a garage and not worrying about our cars being towed for the apartments own snow emergency in the morning. It's about not hearing the people in the apartment above you express their love....or their hate. It's also about personal responsibility. The shoveling, the mowing, the upkeep of EVERYTHING, the remodeling, the bills, and of course the savings account that is there just in case something goes wrong with the house. But it's on our terms, and it's our space. It means something to us and we've made it ours.

I love our house and I love our neighbors. It may not be a perfect house, it's small, it needs another main floor bedroom, we'd love a two car garage, and of course it has it's cracks and quirks, but with anything one loves, those things don't become it's defining qualities, they become part of it's character, or at worse, part of the background noise. But I'm happy here and I have no regrets.

Our backyard in the early spring

In FURther news, a race, and some balls.

Gah! I'm so domestic, all I want to write about is my animals.

Traxx is still gaining weight, way calmer, and seems to be doing well.

Daly got his stitches out the other day and is now allowed on two or three 5-10 minute walks a day. Somehow he still manages to poop when I've forgotten a bag. I mean, really, how do I pick the 5 minutes that he needs to poop to take him for a walk. Thanks dog, way to make me look like a bad neighbor.

Now that that's out of my system.....

I ran in the St Patrick's Day Human Race on Sunday, which coincidentally, is not on St Patrick's Day and I'm really not sure what it has to do with humans other than they run in it.....but it was fun! I got a t-shirt with a leprachaun on it, which is really what's important. Kelly and Andrew ran it with me and it was so nice to run with them. I enjoy running with someone, it's motivating, and I haven't really found anyone who can deal with my crazy schedule and location since Kathryn and I stopped running together. I can tell I haven't been running much, I ran it in 31 minutes and it actually felt hard. I've run 25 minute 5Ks before! Afterwards Kelly and I talked about running together more often, and Kathryn is going to start coming over on Fridays to run with me. I'm excited for this summer to start!

This past Saturday Chris and I went and played tennis. It was seriously awesome. We both hit some pretty crazy shots and there were a couple little puddles on the court for added interest, but Chris is a natural at serving - what a lucky guy! I really hope we play a lot more this summer. It will give us something fun to do!

And now a depressed puppy picture. He's just like a little ostrich!

"Please stop poking at me"

A single breath

As I sit here Daly is laying down on his bed next to me, totally passed out. It's been a rough few days for everyone, and I'm glad they're over.

We went into this surgery mess thinking that there was a good chance the diagnosis was tendinitis, and that they would easily be able to go in, cut the tendon, recover, and be done with it. It did not work out that way at all. When they got into his joint, it was bloody and they discovered a torn capsule or something, but the tendon looked just fine, which is actually bad, because now they know NOTHING. I guess this torn capsule couldn't be the original problem because of ugh, am I ever getting sick of this story.

Oh. the. frustration.

Anyways, he is on bedrest for 6 weeks. No stairs, no walks, no jumping, no nothing. Oh, and he can't gain weight, because that is bad. Right. Meet Daly, my wiggly hungry dog. After those 6 weeks, it's another 6 weeks of leash walks only. Sorry Daly, spring will mean NO FUN FOR YOU. My poor, shaved, broken puppy.