Monday, April 30, 2012

K is for Keurig

I was never a big coffee drinker until my mother-in-law purchased a Keurig for us.  I'd grown up on tea at my mother's house and to this day at least of the stove burners is reserved for a tea kettle.  If my mother's around, we'll easily go through two to three cups of tea just chatting away in the kitchen.  Since options for the Keurig have not expanded to include various teas, I've now turned her on to the Keurig as well.  Aside from the convenience, the variety available is wonderful.  Not to mention it's less wasteful because I'm not brewing up a whole pot.  Plus, Justin's a decaf guy so the ability to make something different for each of us has certainly been a perk.  We're a little hesitant, however, to buy new types because we're not sure if I'll like the whole box.  To date, these are our favorites:

Friday, April 27, 2012

Furry Friday: Sidelined Slumber

Two nights this week are particularly memorable to me.  Monday night and last night.  Monday night was a "slept like a rock" kind of night whereas last night was the "toss and turn, up since 4am" version.  Sometimes my sleep patterns can be attributed to caffeine too close to bed, whether or not I exercised that evening, what I ate for supper, etc.  However, a great majority of the time my sleep patterns (much like my life) revolve around Riley Chance.  One would think that a 15-17lb dachshund wouldn't take up much space in a queen sized bed, but he does.  Especially when he decides to lay perpendicular to you. If you haven't noticed, dachshunds are long!  I have found that my best nights of sleep, like Monday night, are when Riley is also exhausted and stays put the whole evening.  Nights like last night he was all over the place.  First he was by my head, then he decided to sleep by my stomach, then he decided he needed to be under the blankets, then he got too warm and decided to kick the blankets off, and finally he felt it was necessary to hog the pillows after practically stepping on my face.  It's a jarring feeling to be woken up by a dog who's just stepped on your hair, and that's putting it politely.   Needless to say, I didn't sleep well last night.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Diet & Exercise

Let's just say that the closer to thirty one becomes, the more diet and exercise have become a matter of importance.  Maybe that's why I have become oversensitive to anything and everything diet related in the media.  I know the media has been constantly feeding young girls and boys garbage resulting in poor body image and unhealthy habits, but I must say that I never really paid attention before now.  It's kind of like that old adage my parents used to say "it'll catch up with you when you're older" referring to my eating habits as a teen.  I was one of those teens blessed with a high metabolism.  Partner that with participation in sports and I was an endless pit when it came to food.  I could eat anything and not suffer any consequences with my weight.  Those days pretty much skipped town towards my junior year of college.  However, now that I'm just a little over a year away from thirty it's gotten even worse.  I feel like I have to scrutinize every little thing I consume or I'll wake up a hippopotamus the next day.  If you think about it, it's not really fair.  I eat so much more healthy now than I ever did back then and yet it's now that my body decides it wants to store fat?  For what purpose, to hibernate until the apocalypse?  I drink so much more water now, scrutinize the fat content of the leanest meat at the supermarket, shop my yogurt by protein content, and my milk/butter by cardiologist endorsement.  The sad reality is that I just want to eat ice cream and not get fat.  Is that too much to ask for?  Apparently.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Graceful

This morning Justin and I thought there was a deranged bird chirping close to the house.  It was so annoying, it woke us up before the alarm.  I hate when that happens.  Needless to say, upon further investigation it was not a bird but one of our fire alarms begging for new batteries.  So I set out to change them, which required some form of step stool.  Since my handy-dandy step stool is always missing from the hall cabinet (eh-hem, Justin) I decided to use one of the kitchen stools from the breakfast bar.  Well, this was not a good idea. 

Monday, April 23, 2012

This old house

I  feel like I should be hosting an episode of "This Old House."  My house is old (1950s Cape Cod) and for all it's charm, it has become quite the learning experience for the hubs and I. This past weekend was shaping up to be a pretty awesome weekend, but you know what they say about the best laid plans... they often go awry. 

Friday we stayed in and had a movie night.  Saturday we got up, started laundry, and then proceeded to wash Justin's truck, his snowmobile, the snowmobile trailer, Justin's daily driver, and my car.  Normally we wouldn't worry about washing the snowmobile and the snowmobile trailer but this year we got out on it once, some of which could be considered mud-bogging...so, it got washed.  Then we put Sta-bil in the gas tank, loosened the track, and brought the battery inside.  All of this was accomplished before the heavy rain rolled in.  We then ran out to the store for a quick restock of some household groceries and settled down for a relaxing evening in complete with pasta salad and bbq'd burgers.  Sunday was supposed to be a wash-out weather wise, so we intended for it to be a comfy-clothes movie and game day with a side of putting laundry away.  Well, the day started out fine until Justin got out of the shower and said "I think we have a problem."

Friday, April 20, 2012

Furry Friday: Toddler Tuesday


This Tuesday I watched my friend Danielle's daughter Jackie again.  I held off on posting about it until Friday because much of what I wanted to post about centered on Riley.  I must say I was so proud of how good he's been when we've had Jackie over.  You see, he's a spoiled only child.  He's great with adults, dislikes other dogs, and hasn't had too much interaction with anything under 4 years of age.  Crying babies on TV make him go bananas, as do animals, people dressed as animals (i.e. Lola), joggers, and the occasional football/basketball game.  So each time we've had Jackie over, it's been interesting to watch his interactions with her during some of his daily activities.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Backdraft

Backdraft (n): an explosive event at a fire resulting from rapid re-introduction of oxygen to combustion in an oxygen-starved environment, for example, the breaking of a window or opening of a door to an enclosed space.  Backdrafts present a serious threat to firefighters, even those with a high level of experience. (source: wikipedia.com)

The above is a metaphor for the relationship scenario I spoke of in Tuesday's blog.  Myself and the friend are the firefighters, the relationship is the oxygen starved environment, and our breaking of the news most certainly caused a backdraft.  So what to do now?  Let the building burn.  Maybe sell the rights to the story for a new episode of Rescue Me

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Tangents

I'm all over the place today so bear with me.  Anything and everything that struck a cord with me today is getting some face time on the blog.  

First and foremost, this morning I found out that a very wonderful person has passed away:  Bruce Wilhlem.  I interned under him at Bassett and after my college graduation was offered a temp position within his department.  I learned a lot from him and laughed a lot with him.  He made work fun.  He was an excellent reference provider for me and continued to check in on me with each job I've held.  Bruce, hands down, was the best boss I've ever worked for and is someone I aspire to be like.  My condolences go to his family and his colleagues at Bassett. 

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

To Be 3 Again

Last night I had the pleasure of babysitting my friend Danielle's three year old daughter Jackie.  Even though I am the oldest of five girls, I still managed to learn a few new things about three year olds:
  • It's quite possible that their energy levels could power a hybrid vehicle. It's time for the engineers of Toyota to get on that.  I want royalties if the concept is ever acted upon.
  • An energetic seventeen pound dachshund is no match for a three year old child.  By 7:30pm, my dog was sleeping on the back of the couch.  I'm thinking play dates between Jackie and Riley need to be more frequent.
  • Three year olds have the attention span of a gnat.  We managed to play fetch with the dog, color in the Carebears book, watch portions of both Bolt and Rugrats movies, eat supper, and snack on Pepperidge Farms Goldfish all in the span of a half hour. 

Monday, April 9, 2012

Bananas

Our Friday night started with a comedy show at Waterworks.  For those of you from the Albany area: yes, I know it's a gay bar.  Truthfully, I find it a little disturbing how many people asked me that when I said that's where we were going.  At any rate, five comedians performed in their upstairs lounge to benefit The Sexual Assault & Crime Victim's Assistance Program of Rensselaer County.   Truth be told, we had a blast.  Afterwards we met up with an old friend over at the Black Bear and shared a pitcher of Blue Moon.  We were in good company since the local Mayor was there along with Jeff the bouncer, Bernie the creepy cab guy, my new friend Lauren (aka Aunt Imelda) and Mary the Clairvoyant.  Mary, who's psychic abilities are limited to her alcohol consumption, informed Jeff and I that we were apparently long lost soul mates.  That got a good laugh out of our group.  It was just about then that she called it a night and asked the creepy cab guy, Bernie, to take her home.  Not long after we decided to head out as well.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Furry Friday: Muttballs

Ever since we've gone to the vet with glandular issues and were told Riley needed to lose 1.5 lbs, the hubs and I have been brainstorming ways to help him with both issues.  For his glands, I've read that increasing fiber in his diet should help.  For his weight we've been taking long walks on the local SUNY campus.  For both, we've decided to change up his food slightly.  

Typically he has half of a Cesar's or Chef Michael's wet food and 1/4 cup of Eagle Pack dry food at breakfast and dinner.  His snack is usually a Dentastix, aka "crack stick".  We'll sometimes intermingle Healthy Favorites Milkbones, and Beneful foods/snacks to change it up and if I have coupons.  The nice thing about all of these items was that none had made it on the dog food recall list and are deemed safe.  However, in further scrutinizing Riley's food for quality for his glands/weight, I must admit that I'm not a fan that Cesar's is mainly comprised of byproducts (aka ground grizzle and cartilage.)  So, last weekend's shopping trip we picked up some Naturally Delish wet food.  We had tried the Just 6 treats before and like them, so now what we saw our local grocer carried the food we thought we'd give it a go.  It's really a win-win because not only is the food made with all natural ingredients and no by products, proceeds go to Rachael's Rescue.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Furry Friday: On the mend

I know it's not Friday but I felt Riley's return to a stable, less psychotic fur-child important enough to post about on a Tuesday.  I didn't post last Friday, however I've yet to post this Friday...so you can look at it as either a delayed or early Furry Friday post.  Either way, enjoy his returned enthusiasm for life in the below video:

Monday, April 2, 2012

Move over Sandra Lee

This weekend was a lazy one and I loved every second of it.  We stoked a fire in the living room every evening and watched Netflix like it was going out of style.  We did manage to squeeze in a family walk down on the SUNY campus Sunday and then a 40 minute workout afterwards so we didn't feel like complete couch potatoes.  Plus, Riley was on the mend.  Saturday morning we brought him into see the vet since he's been out of sorts lately and as it turns out his glands needed to be expressed internally as opposed to the external technique the groomer uses.  Apparently those bad boys were full and making things rather uncomfortable for him.  No sooner were they emptied, he was back to his snuggle-loving self.  I love when things work out.