Sara Fox

Return of the Drunk Guy - Episode III

2010-05-23T11:08:00.003-05:00

You were waiting for another update on dude, weren't you? Well, here it is.

I was walking Bear a couple days ago and we came to the intersection by DG's house. We could take a left and avoid it altogether, or we could hang a right and take our chances. It had been a very long time since I had seen him or his dog outside. Plus there was a little kids' baseball game going on in the park just past DG's house and I wanted to check it out. And it was a beautiful night, so I figured both Bear and I could use the little extra loop added to our walk. The minute I rounded the corner I saw him and Elle sitting on the stoop. I swore in my head and considered turning back for about 1/2 a second, but figured that would look weird. So we forged ahead. Immediately I could tell something was different. He didn't say anything to me, he didn't call us up to meet his dog. But as we walked past, Elle came out toward the street and Bear was pulling to go see her. So I let them say hi. Of course, dude did NOT remember me again, although we had meet 2x previously! Anyway, the dogs are playing and I notice some differences in our drunk friend:

1) No beer or drink of any kind in his hand
2) No slurred speech
3) No stumbling around on the lawn
4) Clean shaven, hair combed

I'm thinking to myself - Aren't you supposed to be drunk? We chat for a minute about the dogs - he talks about what a hunk Bear is and how Elle would like to have a sleepover with him, but I notice that he has somehow found a filter for his mouth (no doubt due to the soberness) and although he alluded to it, he managed to avoid talking directly about dog humping and the like. And that was it. He didn't say much more. I say goodbye and head down the driveway, half expecting him to start rambling about Bloomington kids being our future, but nothing. Not a word as I walk away. Honestly, it felt a bit strange but believe me it was great.

So that's about it. Yes, anti-climatic, but I thought you all deserved a little update. Chances are he won't stay sober for long - his neighbor said it's kind of a cycle for him. Drunk - rehab - sober - drunk again. But I bet he'll remember meeting me next time, since he wasn't 3 sheets to the wind this time. I suppose we'll see. Stay tuned...

Lion's Tap vs. Five Guys

2010-04-25T14:19:00.006-05:00

Ok, so you know I love me some Five Guys. Their burgers are delish and reminiscent of the Woodhouse. But everybody had been telling me I need to try the Lion's Tap burgers, that they are far superior to Five Guys and I didn't know what I was missing. So last night Justin and I made a trip out to Eden Prairie so I could try these famous burgers.

Those of you who have known me for awhile know that I've never really been a burger girl. That was about the last thing I would order when going out to eat. I don't know what it is, old age or something, but burgers have become more and more tasty to me over the last year or so (see Juicy Lucy post from 9/22/09). So I figured it was only right to do another taste test post; here it is.

Five Guys Burgers and Fries

France Ave, Edina

The burger: 'Little' cheeseburger (believe me, you don't need the regular size)

Fixin's: The cool thing about Five Guys is that you can add any of the toppings for free. The list is extensive. My usual includes: lettuce, tomato, raw onions, mushrooms, mayo. I don't get ketchup and mustard, I add those myself later because I have a certain ratio that I follow. It goes a little something like this 3:2:1 (mayo, ketchup, mustard).

This burger is juicy goodness and it is mess. No real noticeable seasoning to the patty but that's ok with me because the flavor of the toppings in combination with the beef really stand out. As I said before, if you have eaten a burger from the Woodhouse, the taste and texture are very similar. Which makes my mouth and belly happy. The bun is a standard bun, Justin doesn't care for it but I like it. It doesn't overwhelm the burger. The juice/grease from this burger cause some blowouts about half way through eating it. I find myself rebuilding it several times during consumption. I love the taste of this burger and always finish the whole thing.

Fries: Fresh, thick-cut fries. You can tell that they just cut the potatoes that day. But they are very thick, mushy in the middle. You have the option of getting cajun fries; we tried it and don't care for them. Overall, I don't really care too much for these fries. Yes they are fresh and I know a lot of people who like thick fries, but I am not one of them. I mostly just eat them because they are there. Too much potato and not enough crunch. However, you get an enormous serving with one order. If you're going with just one other person, DO NOT get the large size, regular will suit you just fine. So in my opinion, these fries leave something to be desired.

I should also mention they have in-the-shell peanuts available to eat while you're waiting for your order. I'm not a big peanut person, but I'm sure this appeals to a lot of people.

Drink: I always get orange soda. They have your typical fountain soda, plus some teas. They also have Mello Yello (which gets points from me) but I generally stick with the orange. No alcohol offered.

Atmosphere: Fast-foodish. Small place, you order at the counter, no server. An in-and-out type of place. Always hoppin'.

Price: Right around $15 for the two of us to eat. Pretty reasonable.

Lion's Tap

Flying Cloud Dr., Eden Prairie

The burger: I got the California cheeseburger (single).

Fixin's: California means lettuce and tomato, then I added mushrooms and raw onions. Extra $.80 for the 'shrooms.

The patty was seasoned and that was noticeable on the first bite. Very flavorful. Pefect juiciness, not a mess but just the right amount of juice. The mushrooms were very fresh with a strong flavor, which I really liked. This burger was much richer than 5 Guys due to the seasoned patty. So I would say I would be much more likely (if my belly could handle it) to eat 2 5G's burgers vs. 2 LT burgers. Bun was comparable to 5G's in my opinion, Justin think Lion's buns are better. The burger stayed together very well while eating, no major blowouts. I ate every bite of it.

Fries: Crinkle-cut, Justin told me to ask for them crispy. Perfect portion size for me, but I'm sure others may wish they had more. Perfect ratio of crisp to potato. Good flavor. I really liked these fries. Dipped them in a ketchup/mayo mixture. Far superior to 5G's fries. I ate them cuz I liked them, not because they were there.

Drink: We ordered a pitcher of their premium draft root beer. Very good. I'm not a huge root beer fan, so I can't say it was better than the orange I get from 5G's. But Lion's Tap also has orange soda among others. Another bonus here - you can order beer!

Atmosphere: Bar atmosphere. This is a sit-down restaurant with that homey, local feeling. Servers who were busy but attentive and friendly. Busy in there, loud, but I felt like I could hang out there longer. Definitely not a fast-food feeling.

Price: We spent over $30 (including tip) for our meal. A little on the pricey side.

And the winner is.....................

Lion's Tap!

But this was a very, VERY close race. If the two restaurants were right next to each other, I would probably wind up going to Lion's Tap more. But Five Guy's is about 10 mins away, Lion's Tap a good 20 mins. The burgers themselves were almost a tie, but there was no competition in the fry dept. Although pricier, the atmosphere of the Lion's Tap is more ideal. I felt like this was more of a 'dinner' than Five Guys. And, any place where you can get a beer is going to be a plus in my book!

So if any of you are in the cities, I recommend you check out both and make the decision for yourself! And call me, because I would love having an excuse to eat either.

Happy Burger Season!

He Loves His Pillows

2010-04-12T22:22:00.004-05:00

Bear loves to sleep with a 'pillow' of some sort - here are some examples.

Oh, he's so handsome. This is what happens when you don't have kids - you blog about your dog. :)

Drunk Guy Update

2010-03-18T16:28:00.003-05:00

So I was out rollerblading with Bear on this glorious 60 degree day and I passed by Drunk Guy's house again. Lo and behold, I see him and his pup, Elle, sitting in their front yard. He sees us coming and says, "Come on up here!" What's the first thing I notice? He's got a Budweiser in his hand. Big shocker there. He's slurring his speech and kinda stumbling around. So the dogs greet each other (they love each other) and he proceeds to talk my ear off for the next 15 minutes. Here are a few things I learned about good ol' Bob:

He's 62 years old.
He fought in Vietnam.
He's retired.
He is divorced but was married to his wife for 30 years.
He didn't want the divorce, but she did.
He has three kids, 2 girls and a boy. The boy is a civil engineer. One of his girls is a teacher in the Scottsdale School district in Arizona. The other is an art student.
His wife is a very smart lady and graduated magna cum laude from St. Scholastica (a "very prestigious college").
He got Elle from his son and daughter-in-law when they moved to Hawaii. You see, it would have cost them $2000 to fly here to HI, so he took her instead. They paid $20 for her at the shelter.
He has no idea what kind of dog she is.
She is very gun shy so he can't take her hunting.
4th of July is really hard for her because of the noise from the fireworks. She hides downstairs under the bench and although she's really sweet, she'll try to bite him if he tries to pull her out.
Elle loves big dogs, the bigger the better.
One of his daughters has a jack russell that he took care of for 2 years because it was too wild for his dtr to handle. He did all sorts of training with it, took it for walks everyday, but it never really calmed down because those jack russells are just so "headstrong".
Elle is fixed, but if she wasn't, and if Bear wasn't, those two would go at it and he'd "bust her bones" like crazy. *He then spent about 5 minutes talking about dog sex. Apparently he has a friend that breeds some kind of dog and charges $1000 for the pups, but he was going to be able to get one for about $600.
Since Elle is too afraid to go hunting, he wants to get another dog. He can get a "pointer lab" for about $400. It would be the runt of the litter but that's ok.
He delivered two babies when he was in Vietnam. Apparently two Vietnamese women went into labor during an explosion and he had to deliver the babies. But he said he didn't have to do much work, the women did most of it. This conversation led to another about having kids. He said it's the greatest thing ever and watching a baby being born is amazing. He asked me if I had kids, and when I said no, he told me I should get going on that. "Bloomington needs more kids. They are our future. This old guy isn't." First he said I should have 5, I said no, that's too many. He said a couple would be fine. He told me that there's a lot of guys out there that are no good, but if my husband is a good guy, then we should have kids because he'd take responsibility and help me raise them. He proceeded to tell me about 6 times that I need to get going on having kids. Then he said I should have 20. He gave me his permission to start trying.
He also told me about 15 times how sweet his dog is. "Have you ever met a dog this sweet?" He also told me how handsome Bear is (well, he really is).
So all this time I'm slowly trying to work my way to the street to continue our rollerblading. This dude was completely oblivious to my body language and continued to talk to me as I'm wheeling away.
So there's your update. Aren't you glad you know so much about Bob too? He had absolutely no idea that we met a couple summers ago or that I came into his house a few months ago and woke his drunk ass up. Life sure is entertaining sometimes, isn't it?

Happy Spring, everyone!

My Thoughts About UNC

2010-02-10T20:38:00.003-06:00

Bad Things:

1. Turnovers - seriously dudes, you're killing me! I can take better care of the ball than you can and I'm a girl.

2. Lack of fast breaks - I guess I was spoiled last year, but that was one thing that always sparked the team and set them apart from so many other teams. And if we do get fast breaks, they are just out of control, which leads me to my next point...

3. Chickens with their heads cut off - The guards are fast, but completely out of control and can't manage the ball (see #1) or the game.

4. Defense - You don't have to be very smart to realize that there's more to winning a game than just offense. Not to toot my own horn, but I was a pretty good defensive player in HS, so to see the lack of effort in running down the court or getting out to defend the perimeter shots (especially with a team like Duke) kills me. And boxing out - isn't that one of the fundamentals of basketball?!? Way too many offensive rebounds for the opposing teams.

5. Free throws - These are gimmes!! It's a free (hence the name), wide open shot. You should be hitting AT LEAST 70%. I don't care if you're a big man or not. Point in case: Tyler Hansbrough broke the NCAA free throw record in '09.

6. Losing at home - This isn't due to a lack of support from the crowd. The Dean Dome will always deliver. No one should have as terrible a record at home as the 'heels do. There's no excuse for it.

7. Poor shooting - I don't know what to say about this. Not one single person on the team is reliable. For being a 'seasoned' vet, Ginyard has really let me down. I don't buy the injury excuse. And Davis is like 12 feet tall and is still hit or miss, literally. Graves has hit some big 3's, but I don't have a lot of confidence in him, yet.

Ok, time for some good things:

1. Speed - Yeah, this is a good thing and a bad thing (see #3). But this bodes well for the future. Once they get more experienced, this will hopefully help with the fast breaks and get us more points in transition.

2. Height - Davis (soph), Zeller (soph), Henson (fresh), the Wear brothers (fresh). All this height and a lot of diaper dandies. Again, looking ahead here.

3. Recruits - The #1 small forward, the #2 shooting guard, and the #6 point guard in the nation have all committed to UNC.

4. Roy Williams - Dean Smith was the man, but good ol' Roy is a damn fine coach. You can only do so much as a coach to motivate the players. He has more class than most coaches in the NCAA. He's an excellent leader and his win percentage is undeniable. Any team would be lucky to have him as a coach and would benefit from his skill and experience.

5. Well, peeps, I'm grasping at straws here. I can't think of many more positives about this team. But, it's North Carolina. We may have an off year, but we'll rebound. We'll always have talent, good recruits, and a great name. There's no team that's going to have a good showing the year after losing so much talent.

So, I will always have faith in my team. I will always be a supporter. And I will always hate Duke! It's tough to be a UNC fan this year, but it'll get better. There's always next year!
Go 'heels!!

Interesting Saturday Dog Walk

2010-01-30T19:25:00.003-06:00

So I was taking Bear for a walk today on one of our usual routes. We passed by the house where his puppy girlfriend lives (one of the many!). Her name is Elle, she's about 4 or 5, some kind of mutt, but she's gorgeous. From the minute they met a couple years ago, they loved each other. We walk by and she comes bolting out to the street to see Bear. She's off leash and just running around the yard. We say hi and 'visit' for a bit. Then we try to keep walking, but she wants to play and she's following us down the block. No owner in sight. So we take her back to the house and knock on the screen door. The front door is open and I can hear the TV blasting. I knock on the door several times - no answer. There isn't a doorbell. So I pound louder and louder, still no answer. So I look in through the screen door and I can see someone laying on the couch. I open the door a little and call out to the guy and knock really hard on the inside door. Nothing. I'm starting to get a little worried, but I can see him breathing. So I yell out to him, "Excuse me sir!" I'm literally like a foot from his head. He stirs a little but that's about it. I bring Elle inside and notice an open bag of dog food by the door. Well, now I know he's alive, so I decide to continue on my walk. I get Bear home and get showered up cuz I was running some errands. I decided to go back and check on the guy, make sure everything was kosher. I was also concerned that Elle was going to eat all that dog food since the bag was open. I know Bear would probably eat himself to death in that situation! So I go back and when I pull up I see Elle at the door, licking her lips. She was probably munching away on that food. Anyway, I knock on the door really loud again. I can see him still laying on the couch. So this time I go in. I'm about 6 inches from his face, practically yelling at him. Finally I shake him, he wakes up a little and looks at me. I ask him if he's alright and he mutters 'yeah' but then rolls right back over. I shake him again and ask him if he's a diabetic (thinking maybe his blood sugars are too low and he's in a diabetic coma). I think he said 'no'. He's still not getting up, so I close the bag of dog food and decide to go talk to his neighbors. So his neighbor tells me the guy is a huge drunk and has done this several times. Apparently, there's been many occasions when they've had to let Elle in so she doesn't freeze to death outside. I guess he's been taken to the hospital a bunch and tried rehab but it didn't work. The neighbor said there's a lady that comes and checks on him sometimes, and he called her earlier but said he was going to call her again. So, that's my interesting Saturday Dog Walk. You know, it's funny because you walk by all these houses when you're out walking the dog, and you never know people's stories until something like this happens. Well, I'll let you know if I find out anything more about what happened. Poor Elle, I want to adopt her. I think she'd have a better life with us.

Get Your Drank On

2010-01-23T20:00:00.009-06:00

Hello all! A gloomy Saturday it is. Rain, freezing rain, sleet, and wind - all day long. Managed to get the dog walked in the hour window that it wasn't doing any of the above. So apparently my blog posting theory was proven wrong. Oh well. All I can say is I'll do my best.

I have to say that I absolutely LOVE Saturdays. I love the weekend. I love not working. I love sleeping in (yeah, sometimes till 11:30 and I'm not ashamed). I love making big breakfasts. I love drinking coffee and relaxing on the couch. I love couch time in the evening and drinking adult beverages. I love staying up late.

So, tonight I made a little trip to a liquor store down in Burnsville, about 20 mins SE of us, called Blue Max Liquors. They have something like 1200 different kinds of beer. Justin had been there awhile ago and got me this delicious strawberry beer, so I decided to go get me some more. Here she is:

While I was there, I also picked up a bottle of Samuel Smith's Organic Cider. Thought that would be yummy too. Take a looksy:

Well, I'm ready to crack open a bottle and go get my drank on. Have a wonderful night. GO VIKES!

I'll leave you with (yeah, you guessed it) a pic of my precious, handsome, dingleberry of a dog.

Doggie Post

2010-01-05T21:43:00.006-06:00

Let's start out by addressing the poll question from last week. A whopping ONE of you got it right. It was......a big fat juicy rabbit! Judging by the timing of that vote, I think it was Brenda. Am I right? Yeah, my goober of a dog sat at the patio door low growling at a rabbit for nearly a half hour the other day. The funny part is it wasn't even in our yard, so if I would have let him out, he wouldn't have even been able to get it. The pup's been pretty good lately. I think it's been an adjustment not being able to go for his normal twice-daily walks because of the cold, but he's been really good considering. The old fart is going to be 3 in Feb! I can't believe it. He's growing up so fast :'(

On the dog subject, Mr. Sighsy McGrumbles got a new neighbor dog! We miss Scout for sure, but he's probably happier now with his mom and brother on a farm. The new pup's name is Charlie and he is a sweet, calm, handsome guy. I think he's around 3 years old or so. He and Bear have very similar energy levels, so they are good together. They play together when they want and chill together too. I think they're a good match for each other. Sometimes Scout would just be too much, all up in Bear's face all the time wanting to play and Bear would get annoyed by that. Here are a couple pics of the lil rascal:

I would like to hear your thoughts on what kind of mix you think Mr. Charliepants is. Oh, that looks terrible ending that sentence with 'is'. And as an SLP, I know it's wrong grammatically. But, you know what, I'm not gonna change it. So deal with it.

I have a new philosophy for my blogs. I think I don't update as much cuz I feel it's so daunting to have to tell all that's going on in my life. So, instead, I'm going to try to update more often with less info. Kinda like today's post. Focus on a few things, make them short and sweet, and hopefully that way I will be more likely to update more often. No promises, but I'll do my best! POB. Happy 2010!

An Update - Yep, that's right, An Update

2009-12-29T13:17:00.003-06:00

Alright, so time I finally update the ol' blog. I knew it had to be done, but my brother's rude comment on Facebook sparked the initiative.

So, 2 months have gone by. November was gorgeous with many days in the 50s, which made up for our rotten October. We had our girls' weekend the first weekend in Nov and it was the best one yet! I had such a blast and the weather was damn near 60 everyday! Last year when I flew home for girls' weekend, there was a nasty blizzard, so quite the change.
Justin turned 30 on Nov. 27th, so we threw a party. Had a great time but found out that I have some kind of allergy to dark beer. I spent the entire next day on the couch, unable to eat or drink anything (I just threw it all up). It was miserable. Now you all are probably thinking I just got really drunk and was super hungover. I have drank waaay more than that before and never once been that sick. And I didn't mix anything, I drank straight beer all night. Well, now I know to never do it again. At least we had a good time!
I had to work the day after Thanksgiving, so Justin and I just spent Turkey Day here. We made the whole works: turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, green beans, rolls, and chocolate cream pie. It was all very delicious. We bought a new roaster pan and the turkey turned out way better this year than last. Bear even got to sample all the goods (minus the pie). He, of course, loved it all!
On to December. The month flew by. I can't even think of what I did. Had 3 lia sophia shows (the business is going quite well). Christmas shopped. Went back to Bis for the holiday - was there from Tuesday before to the following Sunday. Had a great time hanging out and playing games with my family. I love Christmas time. And got to see my BFF and had a wonderful time with her too. We exchanged gifts and played some interactive Mario Party on DS. I miss everyone already. I got back to the cities Sunday evening and Justin and I exchanged gifts. I got him a Slanket and a ps3 headset. From him I got a Vikings moshi, a cute-ass Favre/Vikes shirt, and a beautiful gold watch. Yay for Christmas!
Back to work and reality, but lucky for me it's pretty slow at work, so I'll have some short days this week. Have to work Friday but I probably only have to see one person, so no biggie. No big plans for New Year's. Justin and I usually just like to sit on the couch, watch a movie, and have drinks.
Then it's January. No offense to my peeps who have b-days in Jan (Talia, Josiah, Jamie, and Sam), but this is generally my least favorite month of the year. It's cold, there's nothing going on, football is almost over, and there's still months till spring. Speaking of spring, Justin and I are planning on taking a vacay to Florida in April (hopefully). We're going to use Justin's parents' timeshare and stay someplace on the beach. I've never been to Florida, so I'm looking forward to it.
I'll post some pics of Christmas and whatnot on Facebook. But that's it for now! Hope everyone had a fantastic '09 and here's to an even better 2010!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T23:38:00.009-05:00

Hello folks! Happy Halloween to all! We had a pretty uneventful one here. Not many trick-or-treaters, definitely less than last year. And if you're friends with Justin on Facebook, then I'm sure you've seen how we felt about this year's turnout. Anyway, I'm gonna post a few pics from our holiday at home.

This lasted about 3 seconds...

...just long enough for me to take pics.

2/3 of a family

Tuckered out after a long night of action at the front door.

Okay, so now what I want you to do is when you post a comment, I want you to tell me what your favorite scary/horror movie is and your favorite scene from that show. I'll start.

My favorite horror movie is The Shining. It's hard though, cuz I really love The Exorcist too. But I'd have to say my favorite scene from The Shining is, well I have two. The first is when Danny meets the twin girls in the hallway and the blood comes pouring in. And the second is the classic scene when Jack Nicholson hacks his way into the bathroom after Danny, sticks his head in and says, "Here's Johnny!" Pretty predictable, but hey, how can you not love those scenes?

Ok, go. I wanna hear your stories, peeps. I know I can count on two people to comment for sure - B-dog and E-dog. They both loooove scary movies like I do!

Happy Halloween/Daylight Savings Time!

And to me, November means winter, so I guess, Hello Winter!

Long Time No Bloggie

2009-10-24T20:04:00.006-05:00

Hello everyone! We've had a crappy October, I have to say. It's been unseasonably cold and a lot of the trees lost their leaves before they changed colors. Just now we are finally starting to see the color change, and it's beautiful! Today was nice, 50 degrees. Justin raked, I bagged, and he mowed the lawn, so it's nice to have that done.

I've done one Lia Sophia show and am in the middle of a catalog show. Things are going well so far. I'm really close to meeting my first goal for my Excellent Beginnings. It's fun and I absolutely love all the jewelry. If anybody wants anything, just let me know! ;)

Can't wait for girls weekend! I'll be flying home so that'll save me lots to time driving. I just can't wait to see all my favorite ladies in Bismarck. I'd have to say it's my 2nd favorite special event of the year. #1 is Christmas. Turkey day used to be up there, but I haven't been able to go home for it for a few years. I still love my birthday, but they've gotten less exciting each year, unfortunately.

I'm bummed about my elimination from King of the Hill. A PTA I work with invited me to this pool last year and this year. Basically you choose just one team that you think will win each week. If that team wins, then you move on to the next week. But you can't pick the same team twice. The last person to be in it wins the pot. Then we start all over, even if it's the middle of the season. Anyway, we had 30 people in it, $10 each, so the pot was $300! by week 5 it was cut to 13 peeps. Well, then in week 6 I picked Philly. Damn Eagles lost. So I'm out. But I hope it starts over soon. On a brighter note, I won the week 6 family football pool! Tiebreaker, baby! Melissa and I also have our own little bet. We pick one game each week to put $5 on. We try to pick a game that we think could go either way. Well, unforunately for Melissa, I'm up $20 so far. But there's still a lot of season left! Don't worry bff!

So Halloween is coming up. Don't think I'll dress up. We aren't gonna do much, just hang out and have some beers. Our typical weekend night routine. That's what we really enjoy. We're pretty mellow people. Last weekend our friends Sam and Ben came over. Sam and I carved pumpkins. We made slow cooker beef stroganoff and baklava bars - both very yummy. But now the damn squirrels are eating my pumpkin! Little bastards.

Before

After

Oh well, what can you do! I looked online about how to stop squirrels from eating them, but I was too lazy to actually do what they said, so I didn't. I'd like to catch those little guys on tape eating it, I think it would be entertaining.

Well, have a great end of October everyone! POB.

Juicy Lucy Taste Test

2009-09-22T22:04:00.021-05:00

So here in the cities there are 3 places that are known for their 'Juicy Lucys'. For those of you who don't know, a juicy lucy is a burger with cheese inside of it. So they take a patty, split it in two, press them out, put a mound of cheese on one, then cover it with the other half, seal, and grill. The classic juicy lucy has American cheese, but some restaurants have variations, like bleu cheese, pepperjack, etc. It's also important to note that there are variations of the name as well. My friend Sam and I decided to do a taste test from the 3 different locations, and here are the results.

Location #1:

The Nook
Hamline Ave, St. Paul

Burger: Juicy Nookie with American cheese

With all of these burgers, the key is the wait time. If you bite in the moment it hits your table, the molten lava cheese will scald the inside of your mouth like a motherlicker and you won't be able to enjoy it after that. So, as hard as it is, you must wait at least 5 minutes before digging in. My first bite of this burger was juicy and full of gooey cheesy goodness. The flavor of the patty itself was great, seasoned just enough and not too much to take away from the whole experience. The cheese was melted completely through and had the perfect consistency, not too runny or thick. Every bite I took had cheese in it, but it was not overwhelming in the least. Overall, the burger was fantastic in every way and I can't say a single bad thing about it. I have wanted to go back and get another in the worst way ever since.

Fries: Fresh-cut fries, seasoned with garlic cracked-pepper and served with chipotle ranch dipping sauce. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't care a lot about fries. Generally, if the option is there, I would take mashed potatoes over fries any day. But these fries were really good. The garlic cracked pepper seasoning was not too strong and the chipotle ranch added just the right amount of flavor to compliment. Crispy, not too thick, not too thin.

Drinkage: Sam and I like to share pitchers of beer and our go-to is Blue Moon. They had this, so we did too.

Atmosphere: Dive bar, very small but comfy. Our server was fairly nice and reasonably fast. The place was as clean as a dive bar can be.

Benjamins: The burger comes with the fries - $7.95. Don't know how much the pitcher cost.

Location #2:

5-8 Club

Cedar Ave, Minneapolis

Burger: Juicy Lucy with American cheese

First bite of the burger, no cheese. Second bite, no cheese. Dry patty, not much flavor. I think in the whole burger I maybe got two bites with cheese. It all had squirted out somewhere before it got to our table, apparently, because there was minimal cheese on my plate too. Absolutely nothing special about this burger. Didn't finish it. And my friend Sam didn't finish it either, which is unheard of in her world of burger-eating.

Fries: Well, no fries. They didn't come with the burger, so Sam and I decided to get an order of nachos as an app. Beef nachos with all the fixin's. They were ok, beef was a little greasy and you could taste it. Sam liked them better than I did. I wasn't too impressed.

Booze: I believe Sam and I shared a pitcher of New Castle. Can't go wrong with that either.

Atmosphere: Dive bar, but a little bigger than the Nook. Our server was super friendly and very attentive. She was better quality than the food, which is not necessarily something you want in a restaurant. Clean. Overall I liked the atmosphere of this place.

Moolah: Nachos: $7.50 Burger: $4.95 Pitcher of New Castle: $10.25

Location #3:

Matt's Bar

Cedar Ave, Minneapolis

Burger: Jucy (that's how they spell it) Lucy with American cheese

Hit the cheese on the first bite. Good flavor, but runnier cheese than the Nook which I didn't prefer. Cheese throughout the whole burger. Got raw onions on this one (not sure what I got on the others cuz it was too long ago). They were like little McDonald's onions and there were a ton of 'em. The flavor of the onions was a little too strong, and not a real natural onion taste. I had to scrape about 1/2 of them off. But the burger was juicy and very good. Ate the whole thing.

Fries: The burger didn't come with fries, but Sam and I ordered a regular side of them. They were shoestring fries. Good crisp, not too thin. Very good flavor. However, I am not a ketchup dipper with my fries. So we asked for a side of ranch - NO RANCH! That's a huge deal for me. What restaurant doesn't have ranch? I don't care how small it is. So I had to resort to dipping in ketchup. For a regular size order, it was a little on the small side. We polished off the whole basket, which is really saying something, as I've mentioned previously, I'm not a huge fry fan.

Drank: Pitcher of Blue Moon. With tiny little glasses.

Atmosphere: Dive bar, very small. Not too clean. Kinda noisy, with some turd burglars being loud at the bar. And the women's bathroom had two toilets in it, not stalls, just toilets. I guess they support double peeing (not the kind you're thinking of, you dirty bird). It took a long time for our server to get to our table after I got there to get me a glass so I could share in the pitcher. If there is anything a server needs to be prompt about, it's getting me my damn glass so I can get my drink on! She was more or less friendly, kinda slow.

Ca$h: Fries: $3.95 Burger: $4.95 Pitcher: No idea.

Soooo, as you probably were able to tell from my reviews, the winner is:

The Nook!!!

For the value, the fries, but most importantly....for the burger! I highly suggest you visit this place if you live here, or even if you don't!

The End :)

Just Some Things

2009-09-14T22:31:00.005-05:00

My first Lia Sophia party is tomorrow (as an advisor), but I'm just playing the hostess role for this one. All the rest will be my own!

Kanye West is a huge douche-canoe, as if we didn't already know this.

RIP P-Swayze.

I am sick with a cold.

Football is perhaps the greatest sport ever invented and just one more thing I love about the coming of fall.

We made chili yesterday and it was delicious.

We are leaving for Tennessee on Wednesday to visit Justin's parents. The puppah is heading to Dog Day Getaway. Thank goodness for wonderful places like TN and DDG.

I hate packing, most likely because I am a chronic overpacker and it takes me forever.

This is the first time I've ever really been nervous about flying. Just so much plane stuff going on lately. And don't give me the statistics, I know it's "safer" to fly than drive, but could there be anything scarier than falling out of the sky in a huge metal death box?

We lost our playoff match tonight for volleyball. Season's over. Boo.

And a permanent boo to laundry.

I wonder if Community will be a good show? Sidenote: Do I need a '?' there? I feel like it shouldn't be there, but it looked weird with a period.

I don't like when football games are played on the same field as baseball and you can see the dirt.

Adrian Peterson has an open invitation to my bed every night. Justin understands.

Ok, guess I'm done cuz my brain just ran out of thinks. :)

Om Nom Kittahs

2009-09-09T23:02:00.002-05:00

Justin introduced me to this first video and I just loved it. Now keep in mind this is coming from someone who is not a cat person. Anyway, I found another and I think they are the cutest vids ever.

Summer Fun

2009-08-24T22:58:00.006-05:00

It's been awhile I know. Busy summer times, especially July and August. Since my last post, we had our Price Family reunion at Lake Sakakawea. It was beautiful weather and we had a great time. Justin and I realized that weekend that we need an air mattress as we are getting too old for car camping without one. A lot of the family was there and it was good times visiting. Played some bolo and bocce ball on the sandbar, and of course rode the waverunners. Haha, I just typed wavefunners by accident. That would be appropriate too.

The following week was my birthday and Justin and I went to a place called 'The Melting Pot'. It's a fondue place and it's actually pretty cool. You have a burner on your table and they bring out pots for all the fondues. We had a cheese fondue with veggies, chips, bread, and apples. Next course was a salad. Next was our main fondue with coq au vin broth that came with sirloin, pork, chicken, shrimp, lobster, and filet. It actually wasn't that good. We didn't like the coq au vin flavoring and of course everything you cook in there tastes like it. So we weren't that impressed with the dinner part.

We had a chocolate fondue for dessert. It was milk chocolate with crunchy peanut butter melted in it. It was served with strawberries, pineapple, brownies, cheesecake, poundcake, and bananas. That was delicious!

Overall, we didn't think it was worth the price ($150!). But we were glad we tried it; it was a cool experience. We think we woulda liked it had we ordered just oil to cook it in. For my b-day present, Justin got me a sweet ass watch!

The day after was my actual birthday and the 1st day of 10KLF. Well, I got on the road at a decent time, but an hour and a half into my drive I realized I forgot the tickets and my money! Brian already had to wait for me, and now I had added another 3 hours to the wait! I was so pissed, so was Bri, but what can you do at that point? There's nothing worse than getting outta town, then having to drive back, and then back outta town, this time at rush hour. Awful experience. Then when I finally got to Fergus Falls to meet up with Brian, his phone didn't have reception, so we spent another 45 mins trying to get ahold of each other. We made it to 10k at about 9pm and had to miss Widespread Panic (on my birthday!) to set up our campsite before it got too dark. But the weekend was great; we heard some great music, the weather was perfect, and we had a great time. Unfortunately for Bri, his car broke down in J-town on the way back home! What a crazy adventure.

Our campsite at 10k - everybody kept telling us how sweet it was
Gorgeous sunset (taken from our campsite)

The following weekend I went to my friend Sam's house in Blaine and we had a Daiquiri Day with our friend Jenn (we all used to work together at Morgan Place in GF). We were supposed to go tubing down Welch River, but it was only 70 degrees that day (at the end of July!) and we didn't wanna freeze. But we had so much fun and plan to do it again soon!

And on to August! Well, the first weekend we didn't do much. The following weekend I met up with Melissa in Fargo for a BFF weekend. The weather was crappy, but that didn't matter! We had an awesome time just hanging out, playing cards, and going out to eat. We need those more often!

Last weekend, I went to ValleyFair Friday night with some girls I work with. I heart VF. But this was the first year I actually got sick. No horking (sp?) or anything, but very queasy after round #2 on Wild Thing. I had to take it easy after that, skipped the Power Tower, but made it on Steel Venom - my fave ride! Brenda, Brooklyn, and Josiah came that night to pick up Talia who flew in from NC (she was visiting her dad) on Sat. We picked her up from the airport, got ready, and went to Como Zoo. The girls loved it, especially the butterfly house. After that, we went to Como Town, which is basically like a little amusement park for kids. The girls had a lot of fun on the rides. Sunday we went to Underwater Adventures at the MOA. It was really cool; I loved the turtles! And the sharks were pretty sweet too. The girls liked it too, especially when they got to touch the crabs. It was a fun-filled weekend! It was pretty neat to be able to take the girls to some cool places around here.

Ok, that should bring you up to speed for now! That was a long post, so I'm done now. POB.

Things on my Mind

2009-07-14T16:19:00.006-05:00

~ Don't describe triscuits as containing "soft white winter wheat". That doesn't make me wanna eat them.

~ People should not say "irregardless".

~ People should also not say "for all intensive purposes" (right Justin?).

~ If you want to unfreeze meat, you say "thaw", not "unthaw", unless you want to freeze it again.

~ When asked "How are you?", people should answer with something like "Fine, good" etc. They should not answer with the same question. I asked you first.

~ There is no need in the world to make commercials 100x louder than TV programs.

~ The left lane of a highway is for passing/fast drivers. It is not to get a better look at the other side of the field or to see if the cows on that side are the same color.

~ There is very little that is more awkward than walking into a male patient's room while a Vagisil commercial is blaring on the TV.

~ If it's not your own yard, don't play in it.

~ Revving your engine really loud when you see a girl is super cool. Oh wait, I mean it's not. It's not cool at all. I don't think you are cool when you do this. In fact, pretty sure it has the opposite effect on me.

~ If you don't want to wear a helmet when you ride your motorcycle, that's your choice. But I won't feel sorry for you when your splatter your brains on the concrete.

~ Know when to use "too" vs. "to" and "there" vs. "their" vs. "they're"

~ "Save $15.00 off" doesn't make any sense. It's one or the other bitches.

Trust that I will add more to this list as I think of them. So keeping checking back, peeps!

Additions:

~ The word is 'height', there is no 'h' at the end of it. Get it straighth.

~ Do not put your tabs on your license plate in any sort of design. This is silly. They are not for decoration.

~ Use the word 'literally' in the right way. For example: 'She literally charmed the pants off him.' So, she was so charming that he stood there listening to her and decided it was time to depants? I doubt it.

~ I would rather you use no commas instead of too many in the wrong places. An example of a sign I saw in the shower at the lake: 'Please pull curtain, inside ledge when showering.' Same goes for quotations. What does this mean anyway?: Please "only" toilet paper in the toilet (sign in the bathroom at work).

Upcoming Events

2009-07-05T18:09:00.003-05:00

We had a good 4th of July weekend, not too exciting but that's ok. Pics can be seen on Facebook. I had to work Friday, Justin had it off and got some stuff done. Saturday was a washout for the first half of the day. I walked Bear, then Justin and I decided to go to Kohl's. It downpoured while we were there and Justin ended up getting a call, so we had to leave. I came home and made dessert - caramel apple pie - and then it cleared up and the sun came out. We got our kabobs going, but since it had rained, it was too wet to sit outside and eat. But it was delish! That night we sat on the deck for a bit to see if we could see some fireworks, but no luck. Plus Bear was a little on edge with all the noise. So we went in and played some Wii. I managed to finish off a bottle of champagne, and Justin did a number on the gin. Fun night.

Today I sunbathed and started to get things together for 10klf. Justin washed and waxed my Accord and washed his Element. I helped a little. ;) We've got some steak stroganoff cookin' up in the crockpot - can't wait for that to be in my belly. It's been just a beautiful day. I'm on the deck right now, drinking a beer and Bear is laying next to me, loving this warm weather.

We've got a busy July coming up. This Thursday is the ProStep (company I work for) picnic at Como Zoo in St. Paul. Should be a good time. Saturday we have a housewarming party to go to at Sam and Ben's in Blaine. The following week we leave Thursday for ND for the Price Family reunion at Lake Sakakawea. We'll head to B-town Thursday night and stay with Erin and Steven (hopefully Justin can get outta work a little early!). Friday we'll head up to the lake; it'll be my first time there this summer, what a shame. Can't wait to get on one of those waverunners! We'll head back to the cities on Sunday. The following Monday night I start volleyball - 4-on-4 coed sand - with Jenny Brummer. I'm super pumped about that. Then my birfday is that next Wednesday!! Which is also the start of 10klf, so Bri and I will be spending my b-day and the next 3 days camping out listening to some great live music. All these things will be good times and this is looking like a pretty super July '09.

I'll get lots of pics and fill you guys in on my good times! Happy July to you!

Phish!!

2009-06-27T15:03:00.008-05:00

Hello! It's been awhile. We've been busy as usual. Our biggest event so far this summer is by far our trip to Alpine Valley to see Phish. It was June 20th-21st - our anniversary present to ourselves. We had an amazing time and they were awesome! We heard so many great tunes and it was a wonderful experience for my first time seeing Phish. Here are some pics and video:

This has always been one of my fave songs, so it was amazing to hear!

We also heard "Waste", which was fitting considering that was the first song we danced to at our wedding and we were here celebrating our anniversary. That is all for this post, folks. Check out Justin's facebook page for more vids and pics (a lot of the same) of the Phish shows.

Hope everyone is having a great summer! I've got a lot more going on, so hopefully I'll get better about updating my blog :)

Peace out.

May Updates

2009-05-21T18:00:00.007-05:00

Hello, folks! I know it's been awhile - it's been a busy May. The first weekend in May we painted our bedroom. We also decided that's the last time we try to paint anything by ourselves. We suck at it. But it's done and it looks better than it used to. What we need now is some artwork to tie it all together. Here are some pics:

Before

After

The weekend after that we had dinner with our friends Sam and Ben. They just moved into a house in Blaine, which is about 9000 miles from here. Ok, it just seems like so far away - takes us a good 45 mins to get there. That sucks, cuz we have a good time together, so it would be nice to live closer. But they made us country fried venison, cheesy potatoes, and asparagus. I was a little concerned about the venison, but it was really good! It all was. Sam made some crazy cucumber gin that Justin tried but I didn't. I made banana cream pie with homemade whip cream for dessert. Good times with good friends.

The next weekend was Mel's wedding! It was an awesome time, minus the losing my keys part. But the wedding went off without a hitch. I didn't get many pics (I was the maid of honor!), but here are a few. Now Josh and Melissa are in Jamaica, probably laying on the beach drinking a Miami Vice. Oh, I am jealous. Justin, I think we are in need of a tropical vacation!

Mel and I at the Rehearsal Dinner

Mel, Josh, and Dawn pre-wedding

Josh trying to laugh away his fears ;)

Sunday the fam went to Golden Corral for Mom and Dad's anniversary. It was good to get everyone together and hang for a little bit before I came back to MN. And it was good to stuff my face too. That's what Americans do best, right?

Then it was back to work this week. And so far it's been a busy one. My brain is pretty much fried from the wedding weekend and this week of work. I can't tell you how excited I am to sleep in this weekend! I think a BBQ should also be in the plans, supposed to be 80 on Sunday! We are in the process of remodeling our kitchen, so I will post some pics of that soon. It's lookin really good so far! And I suppose I should put up some pics of our bathroom that's finally done.
I'll leave you with a few pics of Jack and Kaya I got when I stopped over at Steven and Erin's on my way outta town. Good pups - Jack is a monster!

Peace out.

Last Night

2009-04-29T22:24:00.004-05:00

So, last night I had a dream/nightmare. I say that because it was awful, but turned out ok in the end. Here it is. Oh, and btw, I've always had super detailed dreams, so if you think I'm making this up, I'm not.

Justin and I are the park with Bear. For some reason, we separate and I end up by the road. All of the sudden, Justin comes running up to me telling me that Bear's hurt. He says call 911. So I do. Next thing I know, they are telling me he's in 'fair' condition. I'm crying my eyes out worried about my pup. Some time passes, and I wind up in a computer lab (? don't know why). This lady walks up to me and says, "If someone knew something about the situation, would you want to know?". I said yes! Then she told me, "It doesn't look like he's going to make it." Again with the crying, hard. They (and I say that not really knowing who 'they' are, you know how dreams go) proceed to tell me that I can go see him. At this point I've pretty much been bawling all dream long. So here I am thinking I'm going to say my last goodbyes to my sweet pup. I walk in the room and he's up on what looks like an operating table. The moment I enter the room, his tail starts wagging. The doctor walks over to me and tells me he's fine, ready to go home! What?!?!? Turns out he made a full recovery! The lady then comes up to me and tells me that she told me that cuz she didn't want me to get my hopes up. Wow.

Then I jolt awake. It's 6:56am. About 26 minutes later than I'm supposed to get up. I look over, and I tell you, it was the best feeling ever to see the dog snoozing on his bed. What a relief! But I was late. I hop in the shower and when I get out, the dog is ready to get up. He comes into the office where I was and I give him a big ol' hug. He just leans into it and starts wagging his tail. I tell you, I have a deeper love for this dog now. It's crazy how dreams can do that to you. So I leave you with this pic of my handsome guy (Mr. Fat Neck/Sighsy McGrumbles/MB/Mr. Caramel Rolls, etc.).

Note: I forgot to hit the button that allows you to choose multiple answers for the poll, so I guess you can only vote for one!

Bear and Scout

2009-04-10T19:48:00.004-05:00

So here is Bear and his good buddy Scout playing together in our backyard. For those of you who are also on Facebook, I just posted a video of the two playing together today. I also want to draw your attention to the lack of snow we have here. Our yard has looked like that for about 3 weeks now. I'm sorry for all of you who haven't seen grass in several months.

Fast puppahs
Bear looks so vicious but he's so harmless.

They play like big brother/lil brother.

"See, it's over yonder."

I am so handsome. Oh, and I love the sun too.

Old News

2009-03-19T16:45:00.005-05:00

Hi all! Was looking through some older pics that I hadn't posted yet, so I thought I'd share them with you!

For the Superbowl we made beer cheese soup, guacamole, and homemade pretzels. We followed a recipe from Alton Brown for the pretzels. I used my sweet stand mixer and they turned out great. They were a little bit of work, but nothing too bad! Justin helped so that made things easier. Here's a pic:

We had a nice Valentine's day at home together. We always just stay in and make dinner. Neither of us want to deal with the crazy crowds. Plus, we can make just as good a dinner at home and it's a lot cheaper! Justin also bought me some beautiful roses and delicious truffles (seriously delicious). We made, well, you can see what we made!

Here are just some random pics of Bear and his backyard buddy, Scout.

When is this silly bathroom business going to be done?

Speaking of our bathroom remodel, here is a pic of all the crap that was in our yard during the process. It's all gone now, hallelujah! Did I spell that right?

When we were in Fargo at the beginning of March, Justin stayed with some friends. Here are a few pics of Shea's dog, Ragnar, jumping for the frisbee. He's got some mad hops ;)

So it looks like cheese was the popular option on the poll! I apologize to everyone who wanted to pick onions - I forgot to put it on the list! I'm looking forward to the day I can enjoy a juicy lucy.

Stay tuned for a new post with some pics of Bear and Scout in action. They played together today for about an hour and I got some good shots.

Have a great Friday everyone and enjoy March Madness! You know I will!

My 51st Post!

2009-03-11T21:30:00.002-05:00

I know I've been slacking; that's why I had to remind everyone that I have done 50 posts already, so I have a right to slack.

So I'm sure most of you are aware of our big bathroom remodel that's in the works. If you haven't already, check out Justin's blog for some pics of the progress so far. The tile is amazing and since it's a small bathroom, it wasn't too expensive. We will have brushed nickel hardware and a granite vanity top. Our walls will be a burnt almond color. Tomorrow and Friday they should be able to wrap everything up. They still have to paint, seal the tile, put in the vanity and cabinets, and finish the custom-made closet. I'm so excited! But it's been crazy - we have crap everywhere in our house and there is a fine layer of dust over everything! Never before in my life have I been anxious to clean until now. It will be so nice when everything is back in order. Bear doesn't really know what to think of it all. Yesterday he sat in the dining room and barked at the debris. We will post some more pics when it's done!

Saturday I'm going on a Summit Brewery tour with some girls from St. Mary's. It'll be Amanda Simone (Fricke), Patti Snustad, Jenny Brummer, and me. I've never been on the tour before, but it should be a good time. We invited a couple others, but they couldn't make it.

Melissa and I enjoyed a very nice weekend together in Fargo. We didn't do much; we just hung out, but that's what we like to do best together! The weekend went too fast as usual. Mel's wedding is in 2 months! I can't believe it's so soon. I'm working on planning the bridal shower now, which is in less than a month. Everything should be a good time!

So our weather here has been cold the last 2 days, but I really can't complain to you Bismarckians. We had about 2 inches of snow on Tuesday on top of some freezing rain. We had 50 mph winds last night and below zero temps. Today it was about 5 degrees, but it's gonna warm up soon. By the weekend, it will be in the 40s and they say near 50 next week. Hopefully this is the start of Spring with no looking back!

Oh, I am super pumped for the ACC tourney this weekend! I'm DVRing the UNC game on Friday morning. I have to say, though, that the ACC is a good conference and I wouldn't be surprised to see a number of those teams put up a good fight. I relished in the sweep of Duke this year, which worries me slightly because a 3peat is tough if it comes down to those two in the tourney. Anyway, GO 'HEELS!

Alright, there's your update bitches. Have a great rest of your week everyone!

Warning: Not for Young Viewers

2009-02-24T22:04:00.002-06:00

Just watch'em. It's not what you think. Hilarious.

Play Buddies

2009-02-10T20:15:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday, Bear!

2009-02-02T19:47:00.009-06:00

It was Bear's birthday yesterday (he turned 2), so I wanted to dedicate a post to him. Not that he doesn't get mentioned in any of my other posts, but this one is especially for him. The pup is getting mellower in his old age and he's quite the pumpkin sometimes. He has a new friend too. Our neighbors behind us got a new puppy: a 4 1/2 month old Aussie named Scout. He's about the cutest thing ever and he and Bear adore each other. What's really nice is we have a gate in between yards that we can open up and just let the dogs run around together. So here are a few pics of the two romping around together (taken with J-wad's sweet ass new SLR).

His right eye is half blue.

This pic is just a cute one of him laying in the hall. I don't know why he lays in that crazy position, but it's adorable.

It's been tough with these cold days cuz we can't get him walked, so it is nice that he has a bud so close by to play with. His walks have improved dramatically since we got a gentle leader. I actually enjoy walking him again and he is much calmer, relaxed, and he seems like he's enjoying it too. I can't believe what a difference the gentle leader has made. It makes me feels much more in control and he can sense that. The other thing we have been doing on walks is feeding him little pieces of roast beef when he sees another dog. The dog behaviorist we had here told us it's all about taking the emotion out of seeing another dog, cuz he would get so worked up. Now, the moment he sees another dog, we just feed him the beef and then he's fixed on us and doesn't get so crazy about the other dog. It's a slow process but we have already seen a change in him. It sounds wrong, like you are feeding that excited state, but it's really not like that. She also told us that a dog like ours needs 2-3 hours of mental and physical stimulation a day. One way you can do this is make him work for his food. So we bought two little kong like things that you put his food in and he has to roll them around to try to get the food to drop out of it. It keeps him busy for like 15-20 mins instead of him scarfing down his food in less that 2 mins. And he loooooves to work for it! So all these things we've been working on have really made a difference in him. He's learned some self-calming skills (which were desperately needed) and like I said, he is much calmer now. We still have to work on his greetings at the door and reactions to the doorbell, car doors, etc. He starts an obedience class on Monday, Feb. 16th. He is a work in progress, but such a sweet boy!

So here's to Bear and many more happy years in our family! I leave you with a pic I know you've seen before, but I love it. So sweet and innocent (deceptively hiding the Bearcifer that lurks inside).

Boxer and Baby

2009-01-26T20:25:00.002-06:00

This video is so sweet. I love boxers!

This and That

2009-01-18T21:56:00.006-06:00

It's been awhile, I know. I want to start out by saying congratulations to B on her new baby boy, Josiah! He came on January 11th and he's doing great! I can't wait to see the little bugger. I'm heading home the first weekend in Feb to see him.

This weekend I got a car starter put in, so I'm very happy about that. It is much needed when you live here. And I know all you Bismarckians and GFers can relate. Yay for car starters! We've been getting some more snow around these parts. This morning we woke up to a beautiful snowfall that lasted through the morning and afternoon. We didn't get any pics of that, but these are from the snowfall before it:

See Bear back there sitting by the fence? I think he's waiting for
the neighbor's dog to come out. They love each other.

We're still trying to decide what color we want to paint our bedroom. If anyone has any suggestions that would be great! We've talked about a light brown but it would have to be just right. We want to brighten it up a little in there without going too overboard.

We had a dog specialist over here on Friday cuz Bear's been having some on-leash issues. He gets very growly when he's on a leash and he sees another dog. Also, he just tweaks out on walks, like he's constantly on edge. It seems like he can't enjoy a walk cuz he has to be on the look out for other dogs or animals. Anyway, she told us a lot of good things and reasons behind his behavior. He's had a couple of significant life events that have created some anxiety issues. She also gave us some strategies to try with him. We've used them this weekend and we've already noticed a change in him. He's much calmer, just in general. I think it's gonna work and I bet he'll learn fast - he's a smart boy, not to mention cuter than hell.

Last weekend we went to Justin's employee Christmas party. We started at Oak City at 3:30 with drinks and some apps, and a shot. We headed over to Sofitel around 6. We only got one drink ticket, so that was spent on a mixed drink. The rest of the night it was $6 Amstels. Yep, that's right, $6. We spent a shitload of money on mediocre beer, but what can you do? They had a casino so we played some Blackjack. Justin didn't wind up winning anything in the raffle, but it was a good time. After that, we headed back over to Oak City (not necessary at this point in the night). But we drank and ate some more, then I flipped off his boss, but not in a bad way, mind you. It was all in good fun. He still wants to go for sushi with us, so that's a good sign.

This weekend we watched a couple of good movies: Tropic Thunder and Mongol. Watch Tropic Thunder if you want a good laugh. It's got some great actors in it and Robert Downey Jr. is awesome. Mongol is the story of Genghis Kahn before he became known as that. Very good movie if you ready for a serious, pay attention movie. But I recommend it. If anyone has any suggestions for some good movies, please let us know! We're always looking for something to put on our Netflix queue.

Peace out! Have a great week everyone!

I'm back!

2009-01-01T20:32:00.008-06:00

Hello again! The holiday vacation has been great. We have really enjoyed the time off. We had a lot of fun in good ol' B-town. I got in the Monday before Christmas; my flight was delayed about an hour. Justin got in on Christmas eve, only a little late. We opened presents, played games, and ate and drank a lot on the eve. And as most of you know, yes, I puked that night. That's about all that needs to be said. We enjoyed a wonderful prime rib dinner on Christmas (which I luckily got to eat despite feeling horribly hungover that am). Justin and I sat in the hot tub that night too. We played a lot of Wii and just relaxed for most of the weekend. We got to see our friends: Justin hung out with Nute on Sat. night and I saw Mel quite a few times over the week. And it's always a good time hanging out with the fam! Dealt with a couple of snow storms and driving from Mandan to Bis in some nasty weather. Thanks Dad for letting me use the truck!! And thanks to Mom and Dad for another wonderful Christmas! I have an album up on Facebook of all the Christmas pics and I think most of you can access those. If not, sorry! Here are a few more:

Ready for game time! Don't look too excited.

Got a lot of good stuff this year: a UNC shirt from J-wad, $ from the 'rents, awesome storage containers, a little vid camera, and more. Thanks to everyone! I also got a sweet ass jewelry tree from Melissa! It's awesome, I love it! Here's a pic:

We came back to the cities on Sunday (after another delayed flight) at about 2. Watched the end of the Vikes game - we're playoff bound! Woohoo! Justin and I enjoyed a quiet New Year's eve. We vegged out on the couch with the dog, watched Prince Caspian, and had some drinks. I made an interesting concoction called Hpnotiq Heaven: champagne, Chambord, and Hpnotiq. It was really good. It looked pretty funky when first poured; take a look:

Bear checking out the Chambord

Bear now enjoying a little bit of said Chambord

A pretty good New Year's line up, I must say.

Couch time on New Year's. Both Dad and Mr. Bear have a question.

It was a good New Year's. I can't believe that 3 years ago today I got engaged! It doesn't seem like that long ago. Now back to work tomorrow, but then the weekend's here! We will be taking down the Christmas decs and watching some football, provided the Vikes sell another 8,000 tix by tomorrow so they don't black out the game!

So here's to a wonderful 2009 for all of you! Happy New Year!

Peace Out

2008-12-21T23:10:00.005-06:00

Just wanted to let you all know that I'll be signing out for at least a week. I'm flying to B-town tomorrow evening and be there till Sunday. Don't think I'll be doing much blogging. Had a good time at both of my holiday parties this weekend. The food at our therapy party was great: meatballs, chicken wings, bacon-wrapped water chestnuts, cheese dip, spinach and artichoke dip, taco dip, veggie pizza, deviled eggs, kuchen, and another dessert. It was all delicious. At the employee Christmas party the night before, I won a bottle of Hpnotiq. So I mixed that with champagne and that was my cocktail last night - good stuff. Oh and we had jello shots too, yum!

I worked today, for about 6 hours. Then I also work Monday, Karin the other SLP (my boss) will work Tues and Wed, and neither of us have to work on Friday, since I worked Sun. Pretty sweet deal! I finished packing tonight, now relaxing on the couch with husband and dog. Bear gets to go to Dog Day Getaway this week while we're gone. And he gets a special lil treat Friday, cuz his BFF Guinness is gonna be there over the weekend too. They will be so excited.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I'll leave you with these pics of Bear, cuz that's what I do best!

I'm crazy, bitches!

Dad and Bear hugging. Apparently Dad bores Bear.

Happy Holidays to everyone! Hope you are safe and merry. POB

Done, bitches...

2008-12-14T21:10:00.006-06:00

...with my puzzle. And here it is.

It was a lot of work, but it was fun. Now that I've had my puzzle fix I'm good for prob like another year.

So, ever since Steven and Erin's wedding, I have been addicted to UV Blue. Thank you, Erin, for introducing it to me! It's cheap as hell too, so that's a bonus. Anyway, I had it first with lemonade, which was great. When I ordered it at a bar here in the cities, they only had pink lemondade and that was delicious! So I've been drinking a lot of those lately. This weekend I decided to do a little experimenting. We had some Red Bull from when Justin worked late the other weekend. So I mixed those, with a splash of pink lemonade, and this is what I got:

I love the funky ass green color.

It was really good. Then I did some random mixing with Sprite, red bull, lemonade, reg vodka. They all turned out good. I would always make Justin try each one - he pretty much hates 'em all - too sweet for him.

Here is just a cute picture of the pup I took the other night.

I must comment on the poll. 3-way tie between Christmas Story, Rudolph, and Other. But, since one of the two voters for 'other' has failed to announce his/her choice, 'Other' will be disqualified as an answer. Therefore, it is now only a 2-way tie. Surprisingly no votes for the Grinch! All quality movies, I must say.

Have a great week, everyone!

Note: I left all the religious songs off of the poll; there are just too many.

Odds and Ends

2008-12-07T17:49:00.011-06:00

Hello! Well, we got our first real and lasting snowfall of the season. It's snowed 3 or 4 times since. We probably have about 5 inches total. Bear was outta hand when he first got out in it. It's almost impossible to walk him after a fresh snowfall - he just wants to run through the drifts and piles. It's kinda cute, gets pretty annoying after awhile.

So I'm working on a puzzle. I don't care if that's gay or not, I like it. Justin makes fun of me, but that's ok. It's good for the brain. Soon, mine's gonna be so big my skull will hardly be able to hold it. Anyway, this is what it looks like. I started it this past week.

I found this kuchen recipe in my new Taste of Home mag, so I decided to try it out. It's pretty good! Not bad at all for my first attempt. There are a few things I would tweak next time. Justin really likes it, so that's good. Here's what it looks like, it's cinnamon peach.

We decorated for Christmas today! We actually decided to get a big tree this year. It's a 7.5 footer. It's really pretty, I'm so glad we finally shelled out the cash for a nice one. It really gets me in the Christmas spirit; I can't believe it's coming so fast.

Pre-decorations

Decorated!
Lit up!

So, after the Vikings game last Sunday, Justin slammed his finger in the car door. The next day it swelled up so bad he had to go to the dr to have them drain it. I suppose many of you have read about it already on his blog, but I'll post a few pics on mine as well. He said the pain has started to go away, but I'm sure he'll lose the nail. Eeewww.

Justin in pain as he pulls the bandaid off, Bear thinking Dad has something for him

The damage - this was one wk ago, now the nail is completely black

Tonight we wanted to get the dogs together to play. Well, Justin and I were both feeling lazy, so we thought "I wonder if we just opened the door if he'd run over to Guinness' house?" So we called up Kelly and had her stand at her door and call him over. He bolted right over there! We then wondered if we could get him to come back over here after they were done playing. She let him out the door, we called him from our porch, and he came running home like a good pup. We're proud of our boy - he's growing up so fast - going over to his friend's house all by himself. ;)

Oh, one more thing: Bear fell asleep on my laptop on Friday night. It was really cute; here are a few pics.

Happy Holidays! See you soon!

POB

Bird, Bird, Bird, Bird is the Word

2008-11-27T22:19:00.007-06:00

Happy Turkey Day everyone! And Happy Birthday to my wonderful hubby! We had a nice Thanksgiving here in the Fox household. We slept in, then I made Justin's carrot cake, then we got the rest of our fixins going. Justin got the turkey and green beans ready, I made up the stuffing and garlic mashed potatoes. When all that was done, Justin made the gravy and I whipped up a cream cheese frosting for the cake. We sipped on some wine and sat down to our fantastic dinner. Here are some pics of our day:

Butter, onions, celery sauteing for stuffing

Justin checking the turkey

Our lopsided turkey

Potatoes and garlic boiling up

Bear longing to chase after some furry creature in the yard

The finished product!

Justin carvin' it up
Bear waiting for his share

Bear now scarfing down his bits o' turkey

The complete meal

Dessert: carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

Bear needs a big stretch after a long day

Sleepy nappy time after turkey time

Justin did a great job on the gravy, it was delicious! Everything turned out well, we were proud of ourselves. The carrot cake was intense, very dense. Justin liked it a lot; I thought it could have been a little lighter, but not bad for my first attempt! The cream cheese frosting was awesome. Overall we had a good day and I think Justin had a good birthday. This evening I gave him his present, a new black 16 gb IPod. I think he was happy.

A Turkey Day pic of us - I am sans makeup :(

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! See you at Christmas, or if you're Mom, Dad, or Brenda, see you tomorrow!! Love you all.

Merry Christmas

2008-11-26T12:48:00.003-06:00

I know Thanksgiving is tomorrow, but I've been doing some Christmas shopping lately. Well, what a discovery I have made. This is what everyone is going to get for presents. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

Damn Facebook

2008-11-21T19:24:00.003-06:00

Facebook has been making me neglect my blogular duties. I apologize. Hmmm, so what's new, let's see. Our neighbors across the street finished their fence in their backyard so the pups can play together again. See, their dog, Guinness, is an escape artist. He has jumped many a fence and invisible fences are no match for him. So their only option was to shell out for a 6-ft. fence. It was well worth it, as the long lost friends are now reunited! If you just say the name 'Guinness', Bear goes nutso. They are so crazy together, but it's great cuz they wear each other out. They look almost identical, except Guinness has white paws and is a little bit smaller. So, we're happy that they can wrastle around together again.

So, ever since I got my car, the brakes have squeaked. At first, I thought they just needed to wear in. But then they never stopped squeaking. So I took it to the dealership and they resurfaced the rotors. That didn't solve the prob. Then they basically told me that there's nothing they can do and my brakes will always squeak. Well, I found that really hard to believe. So, we took it to another Honda dealership in Hopkins. They did a total brake replacement and problem is solved! So props to Luther Honda in Hopkins for TCBing it (Justin hates it when I use that acronym cuz he says it doesn't make sense. I say that it doesn't matter if it does or not, cuz I like it and will always say it).

Big fat turkey day is coming up. This will be our first T-day with just each other! But we're looking forward to it, and we're not gonna skimp on the food. We'll make all the usual fixins; Mom will tell me how to make her stuffing. And I have a surprise dessert for J-wad! It is his b-day, you know. And I don't like pumpkin pie, so I'm not gonna make it cuz I wouldn't know if it turned out well or not.

Mom and Dad come down the day after Thanksgiving. We're looking forward to a fun weekend with them, topped off with the Vikings-Bears game on Sunday night! We have 4th row tix behind the Vikes bench, about the 30 yard line. I'm pumped. I'm gonna throw my panties at Adrian Peterson, and probably shake my boobies at Chester Taylor.

Well, I can't think of anything more to report. So there it is. Enjoy. Oh, one more thing, who voted for weather on my poll? 'srong witchoo?

POB

Mr. Fat Neck

2008-11-11T22:16:00.007-06:00

This is my absolute favorite pic of Bear, when he was sweet and innocent. He's just a pup in this pic, younger than 5 months. Who would have thought that this adorable puppah would one day turn into a little caramel roll/apple pie eating bastard? Oh Bearcifer, couldn't live without him.

Note the much skinnier neck prior to his living in the Fox household.

Election time in the Fox household

2008-11-04T20:04:00.002-06:00

Enough said.

Karma...

2008-11-01T19:30:00.006-05:00

...is a bitch. So as you know, last weekend we carved pumpkins. Well, a couple days later, Sam texted me to ask for the pics we took cuz the squirrels ate her pumpkins. I laughed, as my pumpkin had remained untouched by said squirrels. The next day, I come home and whaddaya know, my pumpkin was destroyed. Here are some pics of the damage:

So, I made a last minute attempt at carving the other pumpkin I had. At about 5:30 Friday night I knocked this one out in about 10 mins:

Not my best work, I know, but I needed to have something. You know, Mel and I carved pumpkins nearly every Halloween up in GF, and never once did the squirrels eat them. Little bastards. All that hard work for nothing.

We got probably around 40 trick-or-treaters last night. Nothing too exciting. I dressed up as an angel for work. Remember my angel costume, B? The one I wore to Vegoose. Oh, it brought back some memories! In honor of that, here is a pic of B and I at Vegoose, all costumed up:

So today I made a banana cream pie from scratch, it's one of Justin's faves. It's still chilling, so I'll give you the verdict on how it is later.

Right now I am watching the Shining, woohoo! Tonight we're going to watch The Incredible Hulk. Tomorrow I'm planning on doing a lot of football watching, but we must make a trip to Trader Joe's to buy some wine. Justin says we should get a case, cuz it's only $3/bottle and it's really good stuff - Charles Shaw (you've heard of 2-buck Chuck, well, it's $3 here). There aren't many wines we like, and we both really like this stuff. Then we gotta hit up Southdale: JCPenney and Bath and Body Works.

I'm sad that this weekend is going to be over before we know it, but that means girls' weekend is just around the corner!! I can't wait! I'm glad I'm flying home, it'll save me so much time and I heard there's a bunch of snow in the forecast - not for the cities or B-town, but inbetween, and I don't wanna deal with driving in that.

K, better get back to watching my movie. But I will leave you with this pic of Bear that I took about a minute ago. He's patiently waiting to go for his evening walk. I love the little foot hanging off the bed.

POB!

Pumpkin Carving

2008-10-27T19:20:00.005-05:00

Hello! How was everyone's weekend? On Saturday, we had our friends Sam and Ben over and we (Justin excluded, party pooper) carved pumpkins! It was a good time. Here's what we did:

Sam's witch

Ben's wolves

My pirate ship

My pirate ship, lit up

After that, we (mostly Justin, what a hubby) made a delicious supper of shrimp and chicken alfredo - homemade! He makes a damn good alfredo, I must say. We also had garlic rolls, salad, and my apple pie dessert. Apparently, Bear felt left out of the whole deal and decided he deserves some dessert too. So today, he pulled the pie off of the counter and ate it all. There was about 1/2 of a 9-in pie left. Sound vaguely familiar? Yep, same situation happened about a month ago, just replace 'apple pie' with 'caramel rolls'. What a little fiend. But I guess I can't blame him. I'm mostly mad at myself for leaving it on the counter. Anyway, he's wired and flying around the house on a crazy sugar high.

On Sunday, Justin and I took Bear to doggie day camp and then ran some errands. We're looking for a carafe-less coffeepot, but they are elusive! We want the one like mom and dad's, but the deluxe version. I think we'll have to order it online. We went to one of our fave restaurants for lunch, Soho Cafe in Uptown. If you like Greek food, you must try it! Best gyro I've ever had.

We also raked and filled pumpkin bags on Saturday (plus 7 humongo garbage bags). Then Sunday is was about 30 degrees, 45 mph winds, and snow. So all our hard work raking was for nothing. Oh well, such is life in Minnesota.

So we had a good weekend and it was hard to go back to work today. But only a week and a half till Girls' Weekend!!! I am so excited. Can't wait, girlies!

P.O.B.

Crimpin' ain't easy

2008-10-23T20:10:00.002-05:00

If you don't know what The Mighty Boosh is, you probably won't appreciate this. That's just a warning, so you don't have to waste seconds of your life watching the vid. It's about those big inflatable things that kids bounce on, know what I mean?

Oh, btw, when I post a poll, if the boxes are square, you can select multiple answers. Just an fyi!

P.O.

Autumn in Minnesota

2008-10-20T17:43:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone! One thing I love about Bloomington is how many trees there are here. So when fall came around, I decided to take the camera along when walking Bearcifer. I could have taken a bajillion more pics, but...I didn't. So you're stuck with these. A few are from right next door and across the street. Enjoy!

Trick and Treat

2008-10-13T20:45:00.003-05:00

Here's what I taught Bear. Yes, I'm proud of myself.

You'll never believe it...

2008-10-06T22:15:00.002-05:00

...another cat video! But it's awesome. I want this cat, and I want him to chill like this all day everyday.

P.S. No vid of Bear's new trick yet. I'll shoot for the recording tomorrow, poss. post on Wed.

Taco John's

2008-10-04T14:35:00.007-05:00

Well, it seems Stealth Cat was well received. I enjoyed it myself. If you want another cute animal vid, check out Justin's blog. And thank you all for voting on the poll this time around! Probably our best voter turn out yet. And I can see how much faith we all have in the Vikings, haha.

So Justin and I are thinking of painting our bedroom. Any suggestions? Right now its a dark green, and we want to brighten it up a little in there. Our furniture in there is a rich brown color. Let us know what you think.

You know what is the best fast food joint on the planet? Taco John's, baby. J-wad and I can't get enough of it. And the crazy thing about TJ's in the cities, is that there aren't very many of them! In B-town alone there's 4 + 1 in Mandan, GF has 3. The closest one to us in Bloomington is about a 15 min drive! But I will say this, the one we go to has NEVER, EVER had bad food. Their oles are always super crispy and delicious! I have been enyoying these lately:
Mmmm, super nachos. But I do love me a super burrito (- onions) and then I shove little oles in there every couple of bites. Why not get the meat and 'tato burrito you ask? Because I want to choose when I want a bite of ole, cuz I don't want one every bite. And I want to make sure when I do want it, it is nice and crispy, cuz we all know what happens to those things when they're jammed into a soggy burrito. Anyway, that's what I have to say about Taco John's. And yes, Justin has already emailed them suggesting they build a location near here, but they pretty much shot him down.

Stay tuned for a vid of the new trick I taught Bear. Ok, most dogs his age know this already, but he didn't, so I felt he needed to learn it. He's not here today, off fraternizing with his fellow species at Doggie Day Camp. We felt bad yesterday cuz I didn't get home till 5:45 and Justin at 6, so he was alone so long yesterday. So we needed to run errands today so we thought he deserved a day to play with his buddies. The point is, I won't get a vid till Sun or Mon, so expect a post early next week.

POB

Stealth Cat

2008-09-27T16:50:00.001-05:00

GUESS WHO'S GAY?!?!?

2008-09-25T20:14:00.001-05:00

Clay Aiken.

Imagine that.

This Video Speaks for Itself...

2008-09-22T21:30:00.000-05:00

It's Been Too Long

2008-09-15T21:16:00.003-05:00

What's up homies? Not much here, watching a crazy Monday Night Football game. Speaking of football, this week was pathetic. That Denver-San Diego game had to be a joke. How ricoculous!! They're all talking about how amazing Shanahan is for making the call to go for two. I call that stupidity. I don't care if they made it, they shouldn't have even been in that position in the first place. I'm done talking about that. I'm not even going to comment on the Vikings game. I sucked it up this week in picks. Oh well, there's always next week!

This weekend I'm heading home to Bis for a little partay for Erin. She's taking the brave step to marry my bro, Steven. Good luck with that girl, you'll need it ;) Oh snape. But should be a lot of fun. I'm gonna order like 6 drinks at once and drink them in front of Brenda and then blow my alcohol breath in her face. Make her jealous that she can't have any. Ha, jk, B-dog.

So, big news! Justin got a new job! He will now be working for a company called Kroll. He's already learning how to make the dough for the little dumplings that go in the knoephla. Ok, jk. It's a data recovery company located in Eden Prairie. He's excited, and I'm excited, and we're looking forward to a little extra padding in the wallet! So congrats to you, baby. I'm proud of you.

I knew I was long overdue for a blog, sorry about that. You got color, but no pics. Can't think of much more new right now, but I'll post again when I get back from Bis. I'll get some pics of my car with the tint too. It's pretty hot.

Peace out, punks. Keep it real and in your pants.

Tennessee, Tennessee, there ain't no place I'd rather be...

2008-09-03T21:21:00.009-05:00

Well, we're back! It's hard to get back to reality after 4 days of sun, lake, swimming, boozing, and relaxing. We had a really good time. Thank you Margie and Wayne for everything! We got in late Wed. night. Thursday we went out on the boat and swam, then boated to a restaurant called Calhoun's for supper. Friday we had a little get-together on Margie and Wayne's patio so we could meet all their friends at Rarity Bay. Sat and Sunday we went on the boat again, swam, and tubed one day. We're getting too old for tubing - we were so sore for the next 3 days! That lake is wonderful to swim in - it's warm but not too warm, it's clean, and there's barely any traffic! It was in the upper 80s, low 90s while we were there, and very humid, but that's tolerable when you're on the water. Here are some pics:

Me tubing

Justin tubing

On the boat, Smoky Mtns in the distance

Margie and Wayne's house in the left, pic taken from the boat.

Some huge houses on the lake, taken from the boat.

Chillin on/in the lake.

Ginormous spider on the dock.

The next 2 pics are taken from our bedroom window:

Foxes pool

The lake, of course

We got back Monday morning and were pretty much lazy all day (well, I did some shopping). We picked the pup up from Dog Day Getaway later that evening. 5 full days there and he was wiped. Here's a pic of the tired pup Monday evening.

That place is the bomb and he loves it; he's out with all the other dogs for 14 hours/day. Plus, they have webcams so you can check in on your dog on the internet!

This weekend we are going to be super lazy and we're really looking forward to it. It seems like we've had so much going on lately, we're ready to just veg. I also have a bottle of champagne that's calling my name ;)

Alright, that's all for now. More later, like pics of my pimped out car with the tinted windows. Haha. Hope everyone's doing well!

P.O.B

Off to Tennessee

2008-08-26T22:36:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone! Just wanted to post and let you know that Justin and I are flying down the TN tomorrow to visit his parents. Sounds like it will be hot, but that's great for being on the lake! We'll probably do some swimming and tubing. We always have a good time down there, so we're looking forward to our vacation! The few days off of work will be nice too ;)

Got the windows of my car tinted. Looks pretty sweet. They did a great job. I'll take some pics later and post them - prob when I get back.

Went to the MN State Fair with my friend Sam tonight. I am not all that interested in much of the shopping, although I did get a cool ceramic turtle there (again, I'll post a pic later). I mostly go for the food! Last year, we had deep fried pickles, deep fried cheese curds, Sweet Martha choc. chip cookies, and I had a deep fried Milky Way. See the theme there? Sad. Anyway, this year I wanted to try some new stuff. Here's what I had: curly fries with chili and cheese, cheese curds (couldn't pass those up), a funnel cake, and choc. covered cheesecake on a stick (cuz everything there is 'on a stick'). Now I have some serious gut rot, but you know, you only get to eat stuff like that once a year, so it was enjoyable. Holy crap a lot of people go to the fair.

And I want to wish a Happy Golden Birthday to my bff Melissa! We hung out this past weekend in Fargo and had a good time drinking in the hotel room and then playing some Big Buck Hunter at OC :) Hope you had/have a great b-day and I love you!

I'll post some pics of Tenn when I get back too. I hope everyone has fun working while I vacay!

POB

P.S. Vote on my poll now, and then come next March, we'll see who wins! But no prizes, sorry.

My New Baby!!

2008-08-13T21:44:00.006-05:00

Guess what, everyone?!?!? I got a NEW CAR on Monday night! Woohoo! It is a 2008 Honda Accord EX, mystic green metallic. It's a sweet a** ride, so smooth. I've never had a new car, so this is awesome! It's wonderful. Here are some pics:

We also got a new vacuum cleaner, a Dyson, it the DC18 slim. It's pretty sweet. Check out Justin's blog to see what the Dyson pulled out of our seemingly clean carpet. Yuck!! It's not the 'ball' but it has the same movements as it. Pretty sweet.

Went to Valley Fair last weekend with some girls from work. We had a great time and I realized two things: 1) I love roller coasters and 2) I am a screamer on scary rides. We only live about 15 mins from VF, so that's cool. It's not Justin's kind of thing, so any of you want to come on down and go to VF, I'm up for it!!

We're heading to Tenn at the end of this month to visit Justin's parents. I'm excited to get down there to see them and hang out on the lake in the Tennessee summer.

Here is the sleepy puppy.

AAAHHH I got a new car!! Ok, still very excited. Talk to you all later!

POB

Random Things

2008-07-30T21:42:00.006-05:00

Told Steven I'd post some pics of his new pup. I told him this a long time ago, but never did except for on my puppah post. But here are some I took when we stayed there family reunion weekend.

Jack sleeping on Erin's foot

Sleeping on Justin's foot (I guess he likes feet :)

Big paws!!

Oh, now I would like to introduce you to my new favorite ice cream:

Here's a few shots of Bear sleeping in the Element on the way back from the lake after the family reunion. I'm mad, I didn't take any pics at the lake. I guess I just forgot. But we had a really good time, and so did the dog. It was his first time on a sandbar and lake; he loved it!

I had a good birthday, pretty mellow, that's how I like it. Justin and I had a really nice dinner at a place called Woolley's in Bloomington. It's a really nice place. Best bread I've ever had; I think I ate like 5 or 6 pieces! Justin got me a slanket, and if you don't know what it is, google it. It's totally my type of gift - I love it. I believe it was created with me in mind. And my BFF Mel got me one of those edible arrangements! I've always seen them on tv and thought they were cool, and now I got one. You know how it is when the UPS truck or flower truck pulls up to your neighbors house and you're watching out your window, jealouse cuz they're getting something? Well, I was that neighbor this time. I secretly hoped that my neighbors were watching our their windows when the Edible Arrangements van pulled up to my house. Yay me! Thanks Mel. Oh, here are pics. Fruit was delicious and fresh and the choc. covered strawberries were great.

So that's an update for now. A lot of info packed into this one post. I hope you all enjoy it. This weekend we're heading to good ol' GF for a night and then to a friend's cabin in northern MN for their wedding reception. Should be a good time.

Peace out.

I Like this Video

2008-07-23T22:15:00.002-05:00

Basically, I don't really have to say much cuz they explain it all in the video. Some of you have prob already seen it, but I just saw it and I loved it, so watch it!

Off to the Lake

2008-07-16T21:40:00.008-05:00

Hello everyone! I can see my puppy blog went over about as well as a fart in church. All that time posting pics and the only ones that cared were B and Erin. Thanks girlies!

Well, I just wanted to post to let you all know that we're off the the lake this weekend for the annual Price Family reunion. Although I'm sure most of you that read this are going to be there too, but oh well. Sounds like it will be a nice weekend, hope the weather holds out cuz we're tenting it!

You should all check out Justin's blog, there's a link to it on my blog. We had a nasty storm come through here last Thursday and we had some flooding and lots of uprooted trees around our neighborhood. Luckily nothing happened to our house, but I took some photos when I took Bear on our usual walk. What a mess. The ones I posted below I took after Justin posted those, so they are diff than the ones on his blog. Clean up around here has been a slow process and everyday since the storm on our Bear walks we see people just trying to clean up their yards. I had never seen a sky like there was during that storm, it was like night in the middle of the day, a dark, eerie green color.

Went tubing with my friend Sam last weekend on Cannon River in Welch, MN. We had a blast! But I got sunburnt. You'd think for as many times as I've sunburned, I would have learned my lesson. Apparently not. Now I'm all bubbly on my stomach and chest, tiny little blisters all over. Awesome. And I'll be out in the sun at the lake this weekend. Should be interesting.

Today I was getting ready to take Bear for a walk and I decided to put one of my tank tops on him. He looked so cute, I had to snap some pics!! So enjoy.

See a lot of you this weekend! We're looking forward to it. I think Bear will have a blast in the lake!

Peace out.

It's Puppah Time!!!!!

2008-07-09T21:16:00.008-05:00

As promised, here is my post dedicated to our loyal, trustworthy, lovable, and sometimes "I want to return you to the pound" dogs.

Oh, my dad's clothes smelly yummy.

Sleepy couch time.

Miss Kaya

Hello, my name is Jack and I'm adorable.

I love my mommy.

And my big sister is the best, she even lets me sleep with her.

My name is Rocket, no wait, I mean Sonic.

Whatta you got there? Look at my big puppy dog eyes.

Me likes to drink the beer then eats the box.

I'm a big lovable couch potato.

Sadie and Bear worn out after a long face wrestling match.

I'm innocent, I swear. And I'm too fat for this uniform.

Blu, Wayne and Margie's springer spaniel.

Do I have snow on my face?

Do yous like me new pink shorts?

Don't worry, if you have a pic you wanted to add in, just email it to me and I'll post it. So there you go! Hope you enjoy.

Peas out.

El Weekendo

2008-06-30T21:00:00.007-05:00

What is up, peeps? Sorry about the delay. I know I say that every time, but I'm a busy girl! I spent the weekend before last up at the lake with my parents and sis, B-dog, and Brooky and JJ. It was the most beautiful weekend I've experienced up there in years! Sunny and 80+ both Fri and Sat and nearly no breeze. Saturday the lake was almost like glass so we had a blast cruising around on the waverunners. It was a great weekend just to relax, drink some beers (alchohol optional - ha), and chill out on the sandbar.

Look at this cutie!!

Fearless Brooklyn jumping off the back of the boat.

This past weekend I got a few things accomplished. I baked some banana muffins and a mini loaf. Delish. I absolutely love banana bread. Thanks for the recipe Mom! Here, enjoy this pic. Too bad it's not scratch-n-sniff. Haha, remember those? Oh and remember Garbage Pail kids?!?Good ol' GPKs. Especially the puking one and the kid going down the drain. Remember their names? Let me know if you do.

Went for a bike ride with my friend Sam around Bush Lake/Hyland Park on Sunday. It's a nice area about 5 miles from my house. It was a lot of fun, we rode a long time, and now my a** is extremely sore. But Justin and I are going to ride the River Bottoms this weekend. He said the best thing to do for a sore butt is ride again when it's sore. Just gotta break it in! But I have a tots McGee bike, here is a pic of it. It's wonderful having a bike mechanic for a husband, I must say.

We also watched a couple of movies this weekend. We've seen both, but we wanted to watch Fight Club in HD and we wanted to see Zodiac again. I think this is the 3rd time I've seen Fight Club and the best. Knowing the ending now, I picked up on so many little details that I didn't catch the first couple of times. That's a great show. Zodiac's good too, a little long, but I really like Jake Gyllenhaal. This weekend I think we're getting Rescue Dawn from netflix. Don't know anything about it, but I'll watch anything with Christian Bale in it. ;) He's on my list too, B.

Planning on going tubing weekend after next with Sam and possibly our hubbies too. We'll see. But it's kinda like Red Lake Falls, same concept, and about an hour away. It's on Cannon River and I'm excited about it. Tubing is always a good time! Unless you get hailed on, right Mel?

Oh, it was my 1 year anniversary of work on June 25th! I can't believe it's been a year already. Price family reunion in 3 weeks, that should be a good time too! And you know I have to mention my birthday in 22 days, woohoo! I'm old but I still like to celebrate.

Here's the hub and the pup. Don't ask. I contemplated not putting this spread eagle shot on my blog, but Justin convinced me to do it.

Here's a cute one to go with that one.

Adios, everyone! Hope everyone is well.
P.O.

My Binah

2008-06-16T17:50:00.011-05:00

I know it's been awhile. I'd like to start by saying Happy Father's Day! to all the dads I know out there and Happy Birthday! to my sis Brenda, whose birthday was yesterday. Things have been busy like usual around here.

We celebrated our 1 year anniversary on June 9th! The year went by so fast. We enjoyed a very nice dinner at a place in Bloomington called Chez Daniel. An upscale kind of place, at least for folks like us :) We both got filet mignon and it was very good. We came home and broke out our wedding cake, we used the same utensils to cut that we used on the wedding day! I was way more into this than Justin, if you can believe that. Haha. Let's just say that the cake itself was not bad (also not great) and the frosting was inedible, very chalky. Definitely not as good as it was a year ago! But all in all we had a good mellow anniversary.

Here's a pic of the cake.

We have these bushes growing by our garage and I never knew what they were. They had these red balls on them that I figured would eventually flower, so I thought I would google it up to figure out what they were. Well, in talking with Justin about my google idea, he suggested that I don't google my original thoughts: red balls, bush because who knows what would pop up! Probably a good idea. Anyway, I asked a work friend (flower guru) what they were and she informed me that they are peonies. They are pretty but look kinda goofy cuz they're so top heavy they always hang like that. Oh well.

Now I'd like you to take a look at my impatiens. Look how wonderfully they've filled out! Go back to my post on May 26th and compare to now. I think they've done pretty well!

Today was my last day covering Golden Valley! It'll be so wonderful to not have to go to 2 buildings every day. But chances are I'll be covering some other building that needs help. Oh well, you do what you gotta do.

Justin and I bbqed last night. We have a butcher shop less than a mile from our house, so it's great to be able to swing over there and get some good meat. Last night we did garlic butter pork chops, hashbrown casserole, and veggie kabobs. Delicious!! We finished off with a ridiculous dessert: brownies, with a layer of vanilla frosting, then topped with a mix of rice krispies coated in melted chocolate chips and peanut butter. It was insanity, but oh so yummy. Here is a pic of J-wad grilling it up. It was a beautiful evening.

This weekend I will be heading to the lake! I am excited to get out on the boat and the waverunners. I seldom get to go to the lake, so I must when I get the chance. They say it'll be a beautiful weekend, so I'm looking forward to it. I was able to lay out both Sat. and Sunday this past weekend, very good. I'm getting color, it's amazing! Does anyone know if we're allowed to have fires out at the lake yet? I hope so, that just makes the night.

I am sad to report that Bonnaroo has taken a turn for the worse in these last couple of years. It has evolved from a hippie jam band festival to some awkward rock-metal-pop-jam-everything else fest. The 4 years I went were awesome, and I don't see myself ever returning based on what it's like now. I mean, Metallica?! Don't get me wrong, old school Metallica is solid, but they don't belong at Bonnaroo! It has officially become an event I have no desire to attend. R.I.P. Bonnaroo! I have a lot of wonderful memories from you! And I'm sure Bri and Mel do too.

Ok, better get going. Love you all and hope to see you soon!

Oops, almost forgot!

Ooooohhhh, he's a sweet puppah!!

June already?!

2008-06-05T20:45:00.010-05:00

Hello! I'm back after a long absence, I know. It's been busy like usual. We are getting some bad t-storms tonight, will probably last through the night. And the forecast for the next 10 days has rain every single day! I'm really tired of it, although it's good for my flowers. My impatiens are doing really well. My geraniums have wilted but new buds are starting to flower, so I think it's all just part of the process. I want to get a hanging plant for the front of our house this weekend. Flowers just make houses look so nice!!

We were supposed to have our annual Pro Step (that's the company I work for) picnic tonight at Como Zoo, but it was postponed due to the storms. We're having it sometime in the next two weeks. Should be a good time. I'll take some pics if I can and post them later.

They finally hired another speech therapist for the other facility I've been covering, Golden Valley. So I've been going there and to Richfield everyday for the past 3 months! It gets old, let me tell you. But she starts on the 16th, so only a little more than a week to cover there. Her name is Sarah :( but at least it has an 'h' so that makes me better. Haha, jk.

So I like our new window treatments, but Justin doesn't. After he put the first one up, he didn't like them, so I said don't put any more up, we'll just take the loss (non-returnable after being cut to our size windows) and get miniblinds. But he put them all up anyway. The problem is, they are room darkening cellular shades. So it's basically pitch black in our room no matter how sunny it is outside. This past weekend, it was so dark in there we slept till 11 both mornings!! I can't believe Bear let us sleep that long! He musta been liking the dark too. But then when we realized that most of the morning was over before we even woke up, we didn't really like it. So now we have to decide what to do. The miniblinds we got for the bathroom actually look really nice, nicer that our old school miniblinds. They make them much nicer now. So I guess I wouldn't mind having those all over in the house, but Justin said putting up the brackets for the miniblinds was a pain in the a**! Here are a couple of pics:

Cellular shades that we have in the office and our bedroom

Miniblinds in the bathroom (better where there's more condensation)

We were maybe going to go camping this weekend, but we're supposed to get storms again. But we have some things around the house we want to do: paint the walls around the windows in our bedroom, get more flowers, clean out the storage room, clean the floors, vacuum out my car. And I want to lay out in the sun if it doesn't rain too much!! I did last weekend and it was awesome. Feels good to get a little color so I'm not so pasty white.

And the usual before I go:

This is as close as I'll get to sleeping on the bed.

Ok, gonna run. You're welcome for the update. :) Give me ideas for a new poll!

Peace out, my people.

Blogular Update

2008-05-26T20:14:00.004-05:00

WHAT IS UP, PEEPS!!! I am excited because I'm posting so soon after my last post, like I promised. You should all be excited too. Ok, to start, vote on my poll on the side if you haven't already. BTW, you are allowed to vote for multiple answers, I did.

So the floors are done and our house is back in order, yay!! Here are some pics. Keep in mind that we went with water based poly vs. oil based. The water based doesn't have any color while the oil based has an amber tone to it and it yellows over time. So in the prev. pics our floors that were already finished were pretty yellow. Also, our new floors have a satin finish vs. glossy so they're not shiny. It was an adjustment the first time I saw them cuz they're so different, but we really like them. They have so much character and the wood is so nice.

What do you guys think?

So I got my flowers planted this weekend. The flower place (Bachman's) was chaotic and I don't know the first thing about flowers, so I had to ask like 4 diff employees for help cuz none had time to answer all the questions I had. So this is what I ended up with:

Impatiens in the flower box, they will eventually fill out the whole box.

Geraniums in the backyard

And a begonia by the side door

Here you can see our lilacs have really filled in. If you look closely, you can see the geraniums on the lower left part of the pic.

We are planning on getting more flowers in the future to fill in some spots in the yard, but that was enough work for one day. I'm not used to this kind of stuff! But it's fun and I like to check on my flowers everyday to see how they're doing! They are my new little babies.

Speaking of little babies, check out this one. Oooohhh, puppah!

So on my next post I will show pics of our new window treatments. We FINALLY got something on our windows, no more white trash towels!! So the only thing left right now is to paint the walls around the window trim in our bedroom. We might do that this weekend.

We had a great long weekend, got to eat some Taco John's, so that was a plus. Haha. Hope all of you had a good weekend too. Stay in touch and keep reading!

Seacrest out.

I'm Back!

2008-05-22T21:23:00.005-05:00

Hey folks! I'm back from Bis and it was a good time for sure. Congrats to my mom on her retirement! It was fun hanging with the fam, as usual. Great to see my nieces and nephews again! I always miss those little tikes. I got to see Mel in her beautiful wedding dress and we shopped for bridesmaid dresses. She got one picked out and we're going with 'petunia' for the color. It's kinda inbetween baby pink and hot pink.

Here is a pic of the dress style (obviously not the right color).

This isn't going to be a real long blog, but I know I needed to post. It's been a long week and I'm tired. But this weekend I believe I'm going to get some flowers to plant around the yard. If I do, I'll post pics of those and the new floors. They are really nice!

We have these beautiful trees right next to our yard so I thought I'd share them with you! There are so many trees around our area, and they are all diff colors. I love this time of year when everything greens up, it's so gorgeous. We've had so much rain that things greened up nicely.

Ok, that's all for today. I'll post again soon.

Wurd.

Oh, one more thing:

House Projects

2008-05-08T19:53:00.006-05:00

Hi peeps!! How is everyone doing? Just an FYI on the latest poll. My fortune was the 'silly' one, and yes, the better one. So I win.

An update on the house projects. We got the walls around the new window trim painted. We did all but our bedroom windows, cuz that's a diff kind of paint so we have to do it early in the morning and let it dry and air out. It's oil based so it stinks and takes longer to dry. Here are a couple pics.

A week from today we have our floor guy coming out and he's refinishing all our wood floors. Our floors in the bedrooms aren't even sealed, so they will look so awesome when they are done. The other floors are going to get sanded and 3 coats of poly. Here are before pics. I'll get you some after pics when I get back from Bis.

Entry way

Our bedroom. See how terrible the unfinished floors look?

The office

We have to be out of here when they get done, so I'm going home (as many of you already know). Justin still doesn't really know what he's doing. But good news! Bear gets to go to Dog Day Getaway after all! That makes me feel so much better. He'll have a blast and we'll be able to check in on him on their webcams.

I'm thinking about planting some flowers in a few pots we have in the backyard. I've got some ideas, so I might try those out. Someone suggested day lillies. I don't have much of a green thumb, but it's worth a shot. Owning your own house is fun! :) Our lilacs bushes are budding and creating more privacy for our backyard, not to mention prettiness! And they smell so good.

See how much more private our yard is when the bushes are budding?
Nevermind the terrible shape our lawn is in thanks to the dog.

It's our 11 month anniversary tomorrow! I can't believe how fast the time went. It feels like we just got married. We don't have anything special planned for our 1-year. Probably just a nice dinner. Yep, we're real exciting people.

This past Sunday we had some friends over and BBQed and drank some beers. We got some delish ribs from Von Hanson's (a local butcher shop). We had some potato salad, bread, and I made strawberry marble cheesecake. Everything was yummy! We also played some bolo (aka lawn golf, Norwegian golf, etc). It was good times. That's our Sunday ritual in the summers. The same group of people get together, bring some contribution to the dinner, get drunk, cook up some great grub, and play games. Throughout the summer I'll fill you in on our weekly BBQ meals. You'll be jealous.

Bear has been busy hunting the chipmunks that run rampantly through our yard and hole up in our garage. He's so cute when he hunts cuz he's so intense and cannot be distracted. He tries so hard! And no blog would be complete without a pic of The Bear!

Me is so warm in this blankets.

Can't wait to see everyone when I come home! Love you all and enjoy the pic-filled post. Only one week after my last one, not too shabby!

P.O.

This One's for B Squared

2008-05-01T21:38:00.007-05:00

So this post is happening tonight only because of my sis, Brenda Babes. I knew I was overdue for a post, but was not planning on doing it tonight. Then I got an email from B demanding a post, so here you go. I hope you're happy ;)

Well, I have a wonderful husband. Remember my half eaten turtle from Bear's day of destruction? Well, I was so upset about that because it was a momento from our honeymoon and it was special to me. So Justin called the resort we stayed at and somehow (after much work) managed to get them to send me a new turtle! So I got it in the mail a couple days ago, and here it is!

I am one good looking turtle.

Yay!! He's a little different, but it doesn't matter. Just the fact that Justin went through all that work to get him makes him just as special to me!

So we got the trim done on the windows and then some dude came out today to paint the trim. We were originally going to do it ourselves, as I mentioned in my previous post, but we decided it would just save us so much time and effort to have someone else do it. And we knew they'd do a better job than us. So, alas, here are our new windows and trim! We just have to paint the walls cuz dude patched them for us.

So new windows, new trim, and refinished floors in 2 weeks. It'll be like a brand new house! It'll just be so nice to have all this stuff done cuz we've had towels on our windows for a month now.

We took Bear to Doggie Day Camp today because the paint guy came. Well, when they were checking him in this morn they noticed a bump on his lip. They called our vet and they thought it was probably CPV, a virus. It's like the equivalent to a wart on a person. But it's contagious to other dogs so poor Bear had to stay in the kennel all day at DDC instead of playing with all the other dogs. I was bummed out for him. But the people at PetSmart said they took him out more than just the scheduled times because they all know him so well and felt bad for him. So that was good. But I guess it takes a month or 2 to go away and we can't take him to day camp or Dog Day Getaway until it goes away. And we had plans to take him to DDG the weekend we're getting the floors done, which is only 2 weeks away. Now we might just have to board him at PetSmart without doing the day camp. I feel bad about that, but what else can we do? We're kinda hoping it goes away faster so we don't have to worry about it. Oh, and now Justin has a plethora of names for Bear now, including Paps (canine papilloma virus), Warts, etc. In honor of our pup, here are some adorable pics I took tonight.

Sleeping sitting up

Ok, have a good night everyone! You're welcome for the update. Guess whose fortune was whose? I'll give you a hint, mine's the way better one.

Peace out!

The Happenings

2008-04-24T20:43:00.004-05:00

What's up everybody? It's been awhile, so I thought I'd fill you in on what's been happening around here.

I finally got my ASHA Certification!! Yay. That was an exciting day. I got the letter in the mail 2 weeks ago. So soon I'll be getting my raise. And I already started doing VitalStim. I had a patient at Richfield that I did a couple sessions with and now I have a patient at Golden Valley that will be starting tomorrow. It's just nice to finally have my C's.

We got all new trim on the windows yesterday. It's really nice, but now we have more work ahead of us. The new trim doesn't go out as far as the old stuff, so we have to sand down the paint, fill it, and then repaint around all the trim. Then we have to prime and paint the trim itself. So it's not that hard of work, just time consuming. We're talking 8 windows! But after it's all said and done, it'll look really nice. I'll post a pic of the new trim later.

Bear has been spoiled lately and going to the dog park a lot. Now that the ponds are thawed, I can't keep him out of the water. He loves to fetch balls out of the ponds. Funny though, cuz he won't bring one back on land at the dp, but he'll bring it back from the water. But he looks so cute swimming his little heart out to get those tennis balls. He went to the vet on Monday for his yearly round of shots, nail clipping, and 1-year check up. The verdict is out: the puppah is overweight!! He's 55.6 lbs, they want him at 50. I guess it's still just hard for me to get through my head. But now he only gets 2 cups of food a day (used to be 2 1/2 cups a day). And we're cutting down the peanut butter kong to only a few times a week. Greenies he'll only get on the weekends. Our poor pup will be treat deprived! Oh, and he has mild dental disease. So, we've started brushing his teeth. He has poultry flavored toothpaste. And he loves it. I can't believe he doesn't mind having his teeth brushed. Can you imagine if we used poultry flavored toothpaste? I think that I'd like mashed potato and gravy flavored toothpaste. On a good note, Bear doesn't have heartworm! But he is a fattie.

So, I'm flying solo this weekend. Justin is going to a wedding in Fargo so I'm stuck with Mr. Bear. Maybe we'll try a little rollerblading if the weather permits.

I know this is a boring post, but deal with it. If I didn't post anything new, I'd get crap for not updating it. So make yourself enjoy this. The colors will help, and that's why I did it.

A blog without pics! AHHH! I'll try to not let it happen again. The fact of the matter is I'm too lazy to get off the couch and go upstairs to get the camera.

Ice Cream Update...and More

2008-04-16T21:28:00.008-05:00

Props to Ben and Jerry's for their response to Justin's email about the ice cream fiasco. J-wad sent them an email basically saying we know it's not your fault, but we just wanted to make you aware of the sitch. About a week later, we got a letter in the mail from B&J's saying they were sorry about what happened and they included these coupons (or koopins, as it were).

I used this coupon today, bought the S'mores kind. Haven't tried it yet, but am considering it this very moment.

Thanks Ben and Jerry! We 'preciate it.

This past Saturday we got the office painted. I now present you with a timeline of the event...

in pictures!

Pre-prep. Note all the trim and the chair rail that needed to be taken off of 3 walls, sanded, patched, then floated with joint compound. Who do you think did all of that? You're right, me. Ha ha. Not so much. It sure is nice to have a husband to do that stuff.

Here's Justin taking off part of the chair rail.

Bear's doing his part to help take care of the trim.

Chair rail and trim are off, sanded, patched, and floated.

Justin taping

Justin cutting in

Almost done with the first coat.

First coat done and drying!

Next two pics are the finished product!

Perfect for a baby boy or girl in the future! Green and pink and brown if we have a girl, green and blue if it's a boy. Yay! Maybe just another year or two ;)

What? You'd like to see some more pics of the pup? Ok, here they are.

Ok, more news later but I had to get this post done, it's been too long! Oh, btw, I know it appears as though Justin did all the work in the office. Someone had to take the initiative to snap some photos while working. Of course it was me.

P.O. homies.

2008-04-07T21:21:00.006-05:00

I went to buy some groceries the other day and Justin and I like us some ice cream, so I perused the ice cream aisle. And what do I find but a delectable sounding Ben & Jerry's flavor, Vermonty Python. See below for description:

So, I bust it open the night I got it and dig into it with my spoon. Or should I say, attempted to dig into it. But it was like a rock. I manage to scoop out a bite; it wasn't bad, but definitely not great. Maybe even a bit gritty. I think this is odd, so I flip over the container and this is what I see on the bottom:

Eeewwww, gross. If you buy a thing of ice cream today, it expires one year from when you buy it. That means that this ice cream has been sitting in the freezer at Cub for 2 years!!! I returned it, and got some yummy (not expired) Coffee Heath Bar Crunch. I highly recommend it! That's my ice cream story.

We really enjoyed having Steve and Erin over this weekend. We did some intense grilling on Sat. Nice job on the strips, bro! We had some drinks and watched the bball game (I don't want to talk about it). It was a beautiful 66 degrees on Sat, so perfect day for grilling. P.S. Thanks for walking Bear on Sat. afternoon!!

The next morning, I get up, drink a cup of coffee, then go for a refill. Well, I can't exactly explain how it happened, but right after I put the creamer in, I have a hand spasm and knock my cup over, in turn dousing my phone with freshly creamered java. The screen starts blinking from the Verizon screen to a white screen, over and over. I take the battery out and try to dry it out. Justin puts it in a bag with some of those silica gel thingies (you know, those little packets that always come in your shoe boxes) to try to dry it. Well, then a little later, it powers up. Justin actually uses it to call his phone, and it works! I think, I should get my contact info off there asap. But then he proceeds to turn it off and all I can think is that it's not gonna start up again. Well it did, then it started sizzling, battery got hot, and it died. Never to be resuscitated again. Needless to say, I got a new phone. It's the Samsung Gleam. I really like it so far. Couldn't get a good pic of it yet, but check out Justin's blog for one.

We are painting the office/future nursery this weekend. We (I) decided on a color called Garden Spot from Behr. It's a job cuz we have to take down a bunch of crap off the walls, then sand, then paint. Here's a pic of the color, but it doesn't really do it justice, so just know it's better than it looks. With this color, we can accessorize for a boy or a girl! Plus anything's better than that ugly yellow color.

Below is a pic of the bedroom.

We have to take all that trim stuff off.

Bear loves his new bed! We got it from LL Bean. It's big but he loves it cuz he gets to stretch out! Isn't he the cutest pup ever?

Ok, I'll comment on the game. UNC was completely cold and they got themselves into a hole that they couldn't get out of. They made a hell of a run at it, but fell short. The only thing that makes me feel better is none of the starters are seniors, and I'm positive Hansbrough will come back for his senior year. So they should have a killer team next year too. I'm sad about no more bball for 7 months! :( Oh well.

Ok, gotta go. Hope everyone is doing well. I miss my fam, love you all!

Peace out.

The Trip Home

2008-03-31T20:25:00.012-05:00

Hello everybody!

I'm back and finally updating my blog. I had a good trip home. Bear was great in the car. He did a lot of sleeping and that was about it. It was great seeing my fam and Mel but it went too fast. Thank you, Brian and Steve and Erin for letting me stay with you. Bri, sorry about the rug. If you ever decide you want another one, just let me know and I'll send you some money. Bear had a great time with Sadie and Kaya. He and Sadie did a lot of "face wrestling". It was really cute. If they were in the same room, they just wouldn't stop.

Kaya and Bear had their fun too, but Kaya definitely let Bear know who's boss in her house. Let's just say it was very entertaining to watch. I'm sure everyone who was at Steve n Erin's can agree with me. Saturday night was fun. Jenn n the fam, Brenda, Mom n Dad, and Mel came over to Steve n Erin's and we hung out. That was really cool of you two to have us all over the day after you moved. I know how stressful it is, so it's much appreciated. Very nice house, BTW! Here's a few pics to enjoy:

Bear and Sadie

Sadie and Bear face wrestling

They're pooped after wrestling

Bear and Kaya

Steve and Erin's house

Easter was good too. Again, I wish I could have had more time at the hotel to hang with my nieces and nephews. It was a lot of fun and a big thanks to Mom and everyone else who made the delicious food. It was hard to leave that day. (My attempt at making that paragraph look "Eastery")

The girls in their flower girl dresses for

Steve and Erin's wedding. Aren't they adorable!

Talia, Brooklyn, and JJ

Annika and Aaron - Happy Birthday!

Sage and Emma

So I've been busy since I came back. This past weekend I attended a training here in the cities for a new swallowing treatment modality. It's called VitalStim and it involves placing electrodes on different parts of the neck and face to stimulate the muscles used in swallowing. There have been great results, with improvements seen in swallowing with just one treatment. It was a very intense and interesting training, but somewhat overwhelming. I am excited but a little nervous about starting to use it. This weekend I'll be going to a tracheostomy conference in Duluth. It's 3 hrs. Fri night and 3 hrs. Sat morn so I'll be back home by the afternoon on Sat.

Today we got about 5 inches of snow and it's still coming down. It's wet, heavy snow, but the temps this week should be 40-50 so it won't stick around long. But I'm just read for it to be done snowing!! C'mon spring.

Snow as of 6:30 this eve, still coming down now.

We got all new windows put in today. Pretty sweet. I'll post some pics of those later.

And last but not least, North Carolina is rockin it! They've played so well in the tourney, what a time to step it up. And they're so fun to watch too; they run the court so well. Danny Green has been awesome, and Lawson and Hansbrough were key in the L'ville game. The first Final 4 with all #1 seeds, how crazy! My bracket is busted, but that's ok cuz UNC's still in it and that's more important anyway. Go Heels!!

Peace out. BTW, congrats to Big Face and her new baby! I think you'll appreciate that, Justin.

Going Home

2008-03-20T21:07:00.013-05:00

So, I'm heading home to good ol' B-town tomorrow, provided this pending winter storm doesn't dump 6 inches of snow on us. But, if it's around 32-33 degrees, maybe the roads will just be wet and not slippery. Plus, with all the traffic on this Easter weekend, the roads will be well traveled and hopefully clear. I got all my (and Bear's) stuff ready to go and I'm hoping to just work a 1/2 day so I can get on the road earlier. Bear will be spending the morning at doggie day camp at the Petsmart PetsHotel so he can run around with some other pups and waste some energy before the long ride. I got the Muttpack all loaded up and ready to go:

I will break it down for you now:

All his food for the weekend on the left, ball on the right.

Poop bags top left, rawhides top right.

Nylabones bottom left(he's crazy about

those), milkbones and Greenies bottom right.

Treat bag with dog food on top, frisbees and 'little man' toy on

bottom.

These things are pretty sweet! Then I just fold it up, zip it, and throw it in the Element!

So, March Madness has officially started! I'm stoked. Let me just say this, nothing angers me more than to have to cheer for Duke, but thank the Lord that they won tonight. I would have been in the hurtbag had they lost, I have them in the Championship game vs. UNC! Anyway, go Heels tomorrow evening!

So here's a random pic:

This is a plant my BFF Melissa gave to me for my b-day 3(?) years ago. And I've managed to keep it alive this whole time! I'm so proud of myself. Good pick on the plant, Mel. You picked one I couldn't kill. I love plants, they add so much life and color to your house.

Ok, best be going. Going to watch some Crime Scene 360. We've never seen it, but it's on after our fave show The First 48. If you haven't seen it, you gotta check it out!

Ok, peace out homies.

Updates

2008-03-15T22:30:00.014-05:00

Well, Bear went on to destroy a few more things around the house, not to mention knocking over a speaker in the process. But he was great the last couple of days, no destruction. And he's been really good on his walks. I took him to the dog park 2 days last week. He had a blast but I think he was itching to get into those ponds. But it was a sloppy, slushy mess out there. He was bouncing around in the trees and leaping over logs. It was cute. Like always, here's a random pic of the pup:

Somebody's butt stinks...oh, I bet it's mine.

I've been enjoying my new IPod on my walks with Mr. Bear. It's great...I love it and it's green! Check it out:

It's sweet cuz if you created your own mixes or have an album you can't get the artwork for, you can upload your own pics as the album artwork.

Tonight we enjoyed a delish ribeye on the grill. We have a butcher shop about a mile from our house. It's attached to a Mobil station, so after we dropped off my car to get an oil change, we headed over to Von Hanson's and bought us some meat. Justin marinated the steaks and we had those, plus tinfoil 'tatoes and corn on the cob. It was yummy and made me wish it was summer right now. There will be much more grilling in the future. I know Justin would grill 365 days a year if he could.

So I conned a "superstore" today. You know the silverware tray from the dishrack that Bear chewed up? Well, I took back the dishrack and told them mine never came with one. No questions asked and we have a new one now. Yay.

I'm heading home to Bis this weekend for a little Easter vacay. Should be a good time and an interesting car ride with the dog. But I'm excited for him to meet Kaya and Sadie, my brothers' dogs. Here's a pic of Kaya (when she was much smaller!!), don't have one of Sadie :(

I will take more pics when I'm at home and post them later. I'm excited to see my fam as well. I haven't seen them since Christmas! Will post pics of the nieces and nephews and the fam too.

UNC vs. Clemson in the ACC championship tomorrow at 12!!
GO TARHEELS!!

We're chilling on the couch right now with Bearcifer. Love weekends, staying up late, not working in the morning. Sorry this post is not that interesting, but deal with it. If you're reading it, you must not have anything better to do anyway.

Palabra, folks. And watch out for the feline mexicaids.

A Day of Destruction

2008-03-10T20:54:00.011-05:00

So Mr. Bear gets to be out roaming around the house all day when Justin and I are at work. The first two weeks he was out full time he was a pretty good pup. The only thing he'd do was sleep on the upstairs couches (these are supposed to be off-limits to him all the time). Then he started in with the destruction slowly. Brownies from my mom one week, some pictures from the fridge another week, then the plastic silverware holder from the dishrack. But today tops it all. It was Bear's day of destruction. I'll run you through what I discovered when I came home from work today.

Plastic silverware holder from dishrack #2 (no, we obviously didn't learn from the first incident):

The DVR remote from downstairs:

Long live Jerry! Even Big Bear couldn't bring him down. Just a chip is all he sustained, so we managed to salvage our collector's item.

This used to be a turtle. With 4 legs and a head. A momento from our honeymoon in the Riviera Maya. Now, as you can see, it is a blob. No head, no legs. Chewed off by the dog. Damn labs.

Needless to say, I was not a happy camper upon my arrival home. It was all I could do put that anger behind me and take him for a walk. But I pulled through, and surprisingly enough, so did Bear. I still love him, and here's one reason why:

Peace out.

I'm Almost Official!

2008-03-08T19:15:00.005-06:00

So, as of February 29th, I officially finished my clinical fellow year (CFY). This is a 9-month period after you graduate where you work under a supervisor and they do observations of you during your evaluations and treatment sessions. My supervisor, Karin, was awesome and she works at Richfield Health Center as well (she's the facility rehab coordinator for all the therapies, PT/OT/ST). It was so great to have an on-site supervisor so any questions I had she was right there to answer and help with the more difficult/complex patients. So now I'm done and am in the process of applying for my certificate of clinical competence (CCC) through ASHA (American Speech-Language and Hearing Association). It's somewhat of a time consuming process - I had to get an official transcript from UND, fill out an application, send a verification form to the CSD director at UND for him to fill out and send back to me, and then get it all together and send in. But it's well worth it, cuz when I get my CCC, I get a $2 raise! So, I'm really looking forward to that. It's also nice to feel like I'm not a student anymore. These past 9 months have gone by so fast. Sometimes it's weird to think I have a real job. Anyway, yay.

GO NORTH CAROLINA! I am so pumped up for the game tonight. They're going to go into
Cameron Indoor Stadium and kick some butt. Ellington needs to be on tonight and I'm hoping Lawson's 100% as well. Psycho T doesn't even need mentioning - I predict another double/double tonight. I think the key is UNC needs to get out on their shooters, or they'll kill us with the 3s. But I have faith, like usual, and can't wait to watch!!! I kinda want to punch Paulus in the face. And Singler too for that matter. Paulus cuz he's good, Singler cuz he's ugly.

Tomorrow Justin and I are going to a Wild game. He got tickets - center ice, 6 rows up - for working late one night on that virus problem. So I'm stoked, Justin could take it or leave it but I think he'll have fun too. I'll let you know how it was.

Mr. Bear had a lot of fun last night. We had some friends over to make supper - cajun shrimp alfredo - which was delish!! Anyway, they brought their 3 yr. old chocolate lab Hutch over, and he and Bear played a lot. I leave you with this pic of the two pups.

Edit: North Carolina wins!!! 76-68!! Good work. My MVP: Danny Green He's just gotten so much better this year. ACC reg. season champs and #1 seed for the tourney!

My First Post!!

2008-03-04T21:10:00.005-06:00

Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog! I am a first-time blogger, so don't get your hopes up too high for this. But with the help of my hubby, we are gonna pimp this blog, so get ready for that. Justin's showing me pretty much everything there is to know about blogging (he's a pro/'puter geek), so it'll get much better. I will sadly admit that his geekery is rubbing off on me. Unfortunately, Justin is hard at work tonight, trying to de-virus the computers at his work. Big Bear is sleeping next to me, crashed out after two 45 min walks today and attempting to eat my yogurt (and lid) tonight. He was a good boy out in the house today, no Menards ad shredding to be had. However, I think the couch sleeping will continue unfortunately. Otherwise, things are good here.

Nice win tonight UNC! (90-77 vs. Fla. St)

I will leave you with a pic of the sweet puppah...

Edit: The results of the poll are skewed, as some people decided they could vote twice, Justin. Folks, if we aren't going to play fair, then I guess I'll have to stop posting polls.