Slow learner

Man am I screwed if Izzy doesn't turn out to be a tomboy. Growing up I of course read Cosmo and Teen Beat but frankly was way more into sports- mostly playing them- to worry about makeup and fashion. It has taken me a loooooong time to catch up and frankly I still feel like I am learning the basics! Here I am, 36 years old, and finally learning some of these lessons. Ridiculous.

Aquaphor

If you told me that Aquaphor also cured cancer I would believe you. This is an amazing product. We had been using Angel Baby Earth Mama bottom balm on Izzy for diaper rash while she was in cloth diapers and that worked well. After we switched to disposables it didn't seem to work as well so I tried Butt Paste (eh) and then was told that Aquaphor could not only be used on dry skin, but also for diaper rash. This stuff is amazing!! I not only use it on Izzy's bum (which clears things up in no time), but slathered it on my hands every other night before putting on gloves during Chicago's winter months. I can't say enough good things about it because it has CURED my cracked skin on my hands during winter. I had tried EVERYTHING under the sun and was resigned to having painful cracked hands 4 months a year but no longer! After that I bought Aquaphor lip balm which is doing amazing things to my lips. Aquaphor, I love you and should probably buy stock in your company because I am using so much of you in my daily life!

Bobby pins

Uhhh did you know that there is a right and wrong way to put bobby pins in your hair? The smooth side is supposed to face out, the bumpy side towards your head. Thank goodness for silly Huffington Post articles in my Facebook News Feed!

Makeup

About a year ago I finally decided to wear powder and eyeliner to work along with doing something with my hair every day. It takes only a few minutes to do but I think that it makes a world of difference. 

Wide calf knee high socks

Yes I own a pair of these sock monkey socks (image from the website)

Can socks be fashionable? I do like to wear crazy socks even if the rest of my outfit is professional and normal. Thank goodness for the company Sock it to Me. I randomly came across their socks when I was in NYC last fall and noticed that they had wide calf knee high socks. I love to wear knee highs during winter- especially if I am commuting to/from work or outside a bunch- they can really help with the cold. I was wary that the socks really wouldn't be stretchy enough because I have tried wide calf boots and have yet to find a pair that fit me (to be honest, I haven't tried very hard). Anyway, these socks are amazing. Very comfortable and no problems with my calves! Hopefully they start to make more patterns in the wide-calf version!


Undersummers

This product is going to change my summer (image from the website)

Finally, I am excited to wear dresses and skirts this summer. Why you might ask? Well it's because I finally did a little research into rash guards for my inner thighs and bought something called an Undersummer. It came highly recommended on a website so I decided to try it out. For years now I have hated wearing dresses and shirts because of thigh chafing (the last time I don't think that I had a problem with chafing was around my wedding/honeymoon when I was about 35 pounds lighter than I currently am right now). I tried lotion, I tried CP's Gold Bond powder, and I tried Body Glide (runners use it). Everything wore out too quickly so I was happy if I only had to wear a dress/shirt for a few hours but wasn't a fan wearing something all day which made me sad because there are some cute dresses out there! I think with Undersummers I have finally found the solution! I can't wear any mini skirts but that's okay because I'm almost 40 anyway. But I did find a cute maxi skirt at Target that I wore to work yesterday and I'm happy to say that the Undersummers worked like a charm! Yay!

What took you a while to learn?

*Sadly I was not paid or given anything for this post. Just trying to spread the word to others about products/things you may or may not already know about.*

My current obsessions

The Mindy Project

A couple of months ago CP and I ditched our cable in order to try to save some money. We kept the broadcast channels and HBO (for Game of Thrones obviously) and dropped our bill more than $100. We miss Monday Night Football but for the most part cable hasn't been missed too much because we have Netflix and Hulu Plus. With CP being gone in China this past week I decided that I wanted to check out a new show. I had actually seen the first couple of episodes of The Mindy Project when it came out but dismissed it. My sister was always raving about it so I thought I would give it another shot. Well, I am now almost through the second season and I have stayed up way too late this week watching episodes. However, I am totally in love with Mindy's character and think that she is hilarious. If you are not watching this show you should be. 

Harney & Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice Tea

As an early birthday present after our 5k last weekend, my parents got me a massage. The spa asked if I wanted any tea beforehand and I happened to pick out a hot cinnamon spice tea that I ended up LOVING. I loved it so much I took another tea bag home so that I could mount a search for the tea myself. No need as I ended up finding it at the local grocery store- score! It's black tea so it has some caffeine in it which is great because it is a whole lot more "natural" than a Starbucks refresher (although I do love those) and doesn't have the pounds and pounds of sugar that a Starbucks Chai Tea Latte or a Dunkin Donuts Hot Chocolate would have. 

Mmmm delicious

Booties for Izzy

It sounds sort of funny that I would be obsessed with booties that are for Izzy but these things are seriously awesome. Izzy likes to take off any and all socks as soon as I put them on. We have given up on bringing her in socks for daycare and since she is not walking yet, she isn't required to wear shoes. However, it's 20 degrees out these days and although it's a short walk from the car into daycare, bringing my child in with no socks or shoes would make me look like an awful parent- I also wouldn't want her feet to be cold. The answer? These booties. I found them on Amazon for $8 and Izzy is unable to take them off. They are easy for me to put on and take off AND they keep her feet warm.

Sorry for the small picture

Rainbow Clips

Again, obsessed with something for Izzy? Well when your child has hair as long as Izzy you need to do something with it. Every day it either gets pulled up into a small elastic band or she gets a barrette. I also found these clips on Amazon and they do a great job of holding Izzy's hair back while also staying in place (we take them out before she naps).

Serial Podcast

Finally, is anyone else as obsessed with this podcast? After hearing so much about it I finally started listening two weeks ago. I ran through 9 episodes in three days thanks to my commute into work and long walks with Buster. Yesterday I listened to the second to last episode and I am truly wondering how the podcast will end. There are so many unanswered questions! Personally, I think that although I don't believe that Adnan had a motive to kill Hae, I have no idea why Jay would talk to the police and tell them all of that information if Adnan didn't do it. Although Jay got out of a prison time, he still has a mark on his record. OR Jay is the killer and figured that by telling the police that someone else did it (but admitted to helping the person a little) that he could get off for the major crime and not look like a suspect. But then what is Jay's motive for killing Hae?

I think that the other reason that I am obsessed with Serial is if Adnan is innocent, then he is living my worst nightmare. Maybe I read/watched too many stories about innocent people getting framed for crimes and then going to jail when I was younger but I have ALWAYS been worried that this would happen to me. Then there was the episode where it was mentioned that innocent people are not helpful in their own defense because they don't know anything about the crime and that would totally be me! Not to mention my memories these days is awful. Yep. Worse nightmare.

What are you loving these days??

**As always, I was not asked to review or compensated for writing about any of these products.**

Second birthday

I just realized that today is Buster's second birthday!  We obviously didn't do anything for the day but he had a fabulous time at doggie daycare and is currently exhausted after chowing down dinner.  Thank goodness I got my snuggles in before he passed out.  :-)

Obviously, our dogs are a big part of our lives and our family.  The fact that the dogs are the picture in my blog header says it all.  At this point, I can't imagine not having the dogs in my life.  

While I love both of the dogs equally, the two dogs have drastically different personalities.  Some things I love about Koda more, some things I love about Buster more.  Koda has been around since the beginning of our relationship- in fact she was a year and a half when I first met CP so I wasn't around while she was a puppy.  But Buster....Buster came around just as we were getting the horrible news of our infertility.  We picked him up in May 2011 and he has been a welcome distraction from the pain of not being able to conceive on our own.  

Despite his silly quirks and his insistence on sometimes barking at strangers, I love him to death.  He is my cuddle monster even though his entire body no longer fits on my lap.  He looks up to Koda even when she is growling him away.  He is always wagging his tail and constantly wants to please us.  Food, squeaky toys, snuggling with us, and giving us hugs are his favorite things.

When we lived in CT one of my acquaintances remarked that we really love our dogs because we posted a lot of pictures of them on Facebook.  This remark was made fairly soon after we got Buster and lets face it, dogs ARE the cutest when they are puppies so why wouldn't I post pictures?  At the time, the comment kind of offended me because there is so much more to me than our puppies.  But over the past two years, I have embraced the fact that I am a crazy dog person.  Maybe others can't understand it, but I simply don't care.  Buster came into our family during a dark time in our life and has only made our life 10 million times better (Koda would probably disagree).  Buster and Koda are literally my babies.  They have kept me sane throughout this whole infertility process.

When my aunt and uncle came over for dinner two weekends ago they started talking about how all of my cousins have tried to give their dogs to them after having kids.  Well, all of my cousins are fertile and so for them, they haven't needed to rely on their dogs for some good cries.  OF COURSE the relationship with your dogs changes after having kids, but we would never, ever think about giving them away.

So Buster buddy, thank you for the past two years.  I don't know what we would have done without you.

My how he has grown the past two years.....

First day at home

Already loving the sticks as a puppy

He is always running

His tongue is never in his mouth

His favorite sleeping position

He doesn't love swimming yet....hopefully soon

He's fairly patient with me....

His lanky teenager phase

His favorite thing is to curl up in our laps

He loves to go on hikes

He can look quite dashing

And he LOVES to eat snow

Happy 2nd birthday Buster!!

June loves

Things that I am loving recently:

HBO GO

For those of you that have HBO, I would highly recommend HBO GO.  HBO puts all of their series, documentaries and even movies up on the site and you can stream them whenever you want.  I have the iPhone app and during my lunch I have been catching up on True Blood.  The site even remembers where you are in the show so the next time you turn on the app or the next time you watch the show at your computer, the show starts up right where you left off. 

By the way, friends begged me to start watching True Blood and although it is cheesy and silly at times, it’s not too bad.  Of course nothing compares to Game of Thrones (a show that I can now watch over and over and over and over because of this site).  :-)

Surface Bassu Hydrating Masque  

When my hair stylist recommended that I start using a hydrating conditioner (in addition to my everyday conditioner), all I thought was, how much is this going to cost?  Turns out not very much.  I think that I might have paid $25 for the bottle and I only use a dime size dollop of it about two times a week (you have to leave it in your hair for about 2 minutes while in the shower).  I have had the bottle for over a year and I'm still not halfway through it.  It smells amazing (almost like a freshly-baked cake) and makes my hair feel 10 times softer.  Even though I only get my hair cut every 12 weeks or so, I don’t have as many split ends and my hair is healthier.  BUY THIS PRODUCT.

Columbia Back Up Just Right Pant

I kid you not- these are the most comfortable pants in the history of the world.  And the best part about them?  You can take them hiking OR wear them to work (yes I wore them to work yesterday).  These pants are extremely comfortable and look like black dress pants.  My only complaint is that they put the Columbia logo on the back side of the pant- which is fine, but I have to make sure that I wear a long enough shirt to cover up the logo when I wear the pants to work.  Yeah.  Love these things.  Will buy another pair soon.

Passion flavored Tazo tea

I generally hate iced tea.  I love hot fruity teas and hot Chai tea, but hate when they are iced.  But this tea changed my mind.  I have been trying to drink less Crystal Light because it has all kinds of artificial ingredients….but needed something else to drink other than water.  Now all I have to do is heat up the tea kettle, hang three bags of the tea into the pitcher and voila!  Three minutes later I have delicious iced tea.  Love it.

The neighborhood around our new house in IL

Yes that’s right!  The seller verbally agreed to our last and final offer yesterday.  We had to come up a bit from our first offer, but my Dad thinks that we got a great deal.  So I have been checking out what is around our new place and have found some cool things about our new place.  It is 2 blocks away from the train station that is going to take me downtown to work every day, 2 blocks away from the Public Library, 2 blocks away from a park, 2 blocks away from another public park (this one with a swimming pool, tennis courts, baseball field, etc), and 2 ½ blocks away from an ice cream shop and other restaurants (that ice cream shop could be deadly to my waistline!).  It even looks like a poultry shop that has free range and hormone-free chicken and eggs is only a few blocks away!  It really is a fantastic location- maybe we can even get rid of one of the cars?

Houzz.com    

I found this site while perusing Pinterest and I LOVE it (it even has an iPhone app).  Designers and regular people can upload pictures of houses they have worked on and people like me can go on to the site, view the pictures, ask questions, and save the pictures to “ideabooks.”  This site is PERFECT for our fixer-upper because they we can get a bunch of ideas together and really decide what we want to do with the house.

Facetime
CP recently got an iPhone and I'm so glad that he did!  Last night was the first time we were able to use Facetime to talk to each other and it was great!  Not quite the same as talking to each other face-to-face, but better than just a phone call.  It will help get me through being stuck in CT until August.

What have you been loving recently?

*Sadly enough I was not compensated for these reviews, or even asked to do them.  Just thought I would spread the word about things that have been making me happy recently.  :-)

Friday fun

I swear I'll be back next week with a real post (I have worked A LOT this week in addition to 5am wakeups for boot camp!)...but in the meantime this was too funny not to share.

I give you, the literal interpretation of "Party Rock Anthem."

HERE because Blogger is pissing me off and not embedding the video.

My favorite shot is of the guy shuffling the cards while the days of the week flash by, Grandparents Day, Arbor Day, etc. ("every day I'm shuffling"). Awesome.

Enjoy your weekend!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

It is almost July so the garden is starting to get big! We have already finished the bok choy that we planted in late April and have seedlings popping out of the ground for a new row that we planted this past weekend! We also took out the bibb lettuce and romaine lettuce- we didn't get a great crop this year so we replaced them with green and red loose leaf lettuce.

Herb garden

Green pole beans. They are slowly climbing up the trellis. I think that they are going to take longer because they do not get a full day of sun.


Hot peppers already starting to grow!

Bush cucumbers flowering.

We have snap peas! The plants are already as tall as me (5'9")!

Cherry tomatoes. Can't wait to put these suckers in salads!

Zucchinis are flowering which means we will soon be inudated with zucchini (not a bad thing- grilled zucchini is DELISH).

Brussel sprouts

Mmmmm beets.

Carrots.

I am so proud of our garden right now. Other than a few of the herbs which we wintered over inside and the tomatoes we planted all of that from seed this year. We saved so much money buying $1.99 organic seed packets rather than buying already-started plants. We thought it would be a lot harder to do....but it turns out it is really simple. Yay!

Stylish??

I have been tagged as a stylish blogger from Stevie. That makes me giggle because you wanna know what I am currently wearing? Glasses, no makeup, gray yoga pants and a sweatshirt given to me by my college athletic department for practices. That means that the sweatshirt is probably from 1996. Yep. Sooo stylish. What can I say? It’s a work from home day.

Are you sure you don’t want to take back the award? :-)

So now I am supposed to:
*Link back to Stevie. Thanks lady!
*Tell you 7 random facts.
*Link to 15 other bloggers. Good thing I have a large reading list…

1. I hate oysters. That fact alone KILLS CP. Oh sure I have tried them in the past, but now when CP pushes the plate towards me I just tell him that he is wasting a precious oyster.

2. When I shower I don’t let the hair that falls out go down the drain. Instead I put it aside and throw it in the garbage after I get out. I like to think that I am decreasing the chances of a clogged shower.

3. I have never broken a bone. I might have totally jinxed myself saying that, but yeah, I have been pretty lucky considering all of the sports that I have played in my lifetime.

4. I like to keep all of the bills in my wallet facing the same way, right side up, and in denomination order. I swear that I don’t have OCD….

5. My favorite food in the world is corn. If I could eat it for every meal I would. One of the reasons I know that CP loves me? We made a meal from a Mexican cookbook on Sunday. One of the dishes? Corn soup. Yum.

6. Last week I found another lump on Fuzzy Britches’ chest. I will be taking her in to the vet tomorrow to get it checked out, but it feels a bit different than the other one. On my walk with her the night I found it I started crying because I was CONVINCED that this one is cancerous.

7. I hate public speaking if it is in a formal setting. Unfortunately, starting next month part of my job will be going out to groups to give speeches. I always survive and I don’t have any weird tics or anything, but hate it the entire time I am giving it. It’s so funny because my sister is the complete opposite. Her job is in the public eye and she has to speak in public all the time- I don’t know how she does it.

Now for the linking!

Runners are stylish!

Brilliance Wasted

New Life

New moms are stylish! Duh. They have a new accessory (just kidding!):

A Peine for your Thoughts

Du Wax Loolu

I'm a Mom in Real Life

Jillybee Momma

Our Little Apartment

Somi Speaks

State that I am In

These Little Moments

People who travel are stylish!

Eat, Blog and Be Married

Terra Bear

People who recently got married are stylish!

Amy Jo...On the Go

I am Slowly Drifting

Stylish Handwriting

Time to detox

We are back! Back from our mini vacation to Chicago that is. I’m pretty sure we waddled instead of walking out of the airport last night. :-) I’ll try to keep my summary of our awesome trip brief:

Wednesday
*Walked around Michigan Avenue for part of the day. CP got a pair of khakis that have flannel lining and I am SO JEALOUS. He says they feel like sweatpants. We also stopped by Tiffany’s because we had a gift certificate from the wedding. Because it wasn’t really enough money for anything in the store, CP said that I could use it on a piece of jewelry. Yay! So I ended up getting this hammered sterling silver necklace. I love it!

*Food: CP tried the sausage pancake bites at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. He said that he specifically ordered them because he knew I would be grossed out (and I was). Ewww. For lunch we went to Foodlife which is an awesome restaurant with 14 different stations to choose from of different items: stir fry, pizza, comfort food, soups, salads, etc. I always go to the stir fry station. Yum! That night we went to Mon Ami Gabi, a French restaurant in Lincoln Park with my parents. Their French onion soup was good (not amazing), but my beef bourguignon was to die for. CP’s skate was also very delicious.

*Bonus: That night was probably a breakthrough in the relationship between CP and my parents. Conversation was flowing, everyone was having a good time, etc. And it lasted all weekend long (yay!). At times CP has felt like he didn’t have a ton in common with my parents- especially my Dad- and it was nice to see the awkwardness evaporate.

Thursday
*This day was a bit rough. We knew that we were going to hang out all day with our friends from law school/out west, but didn’t really plan too much. We met up around 11:30 and because no one wanted to really make a decision, we ended up heading to a bar to talk about what we wanted to do. Well, we just kept drinking. For TWELVE HOURS. We did eat lunch and attend a charity function for Gigi’s Playhouse (a Down Syndrome Awareness Center). All you can drink with cupcakes and appetizers! We then went to our first Top Chef restaurant for a late dinner.

*Food: We had a quick breakfast at Corner Bakery. (Sidenote: they are not just in Chicago. If you go for lunch I would HIGHLY recommend the Chicken Pomodori.) Lunch was kind of odd due to the drinking. We had wings at Finn McCool’s (simply because that is where we started drinking) before taking a cab over to Big Star and having a pork belly taco. We knew we had late dinner reservations at The Girl and the Goat, so after the charity thing, we headed over.

The restaurant’s head chef is Stephanie Izard from Top Chef Season 4. The menu is a bit all over the place, but appealed to CP’s off the wall tastes (thank goodness our friends aren’t picky eaters!). We had a roasted beet salad with anchovies and a crème fraiche dressing (good but I wanted more beets), pig face (a little greasy- also just ODD), goat liver pate (ewww- but CP loved it), lamb merguez sausage wrapped in calamari (yum) and skirt steak (boring). We finished the meal with their bourbon apple dessert. I’m not sure what they put into it but it was like crack. I wasn’t hungry, but wanted more of it’s deliciousness. The restaurant just opened this summer and it seems to be doing well- the place was packed at 10pm on a Thursday night!

Friday
*Due to our 12 hour drinking spree the day before, Friday morning was a little rough. Luckily we didn’t have too much to do. Lunch with friends, then helped my Mom shop and prepare for the surprise party the next day. That night we went to my sister’s boyfriend’s birthday party- bowling and then karaoke. I won all three games (woo hoo!) and then CP and I bailed after only a little bit of karaoke. Just not our scene.

*Food: Every time I go home to Chicago I HAVE to have Edwardo’s. The most amazing stuffed pizza ever. CP and I met up with another law school friend and her husband who just happened to be in town. The pizza was, as always, super delicious. Before heading out to kick everyone’s butt- whoops I mean, bowl- CP and I had salads from PJ Clarke’s with my parents. I would highly recommend their brunch if you are ever in town. They bring out mini muffins before your meal which are awesome (along with their pancakes). Late night we went to Five Faces- a great greasy/drunk food place. There we saw Tony Siragusa- drunk, unshaven and generally looking like a bum, with his handlers. I suspect he wore his FOX NFL hat to try to pick up chicks (which is hilarious because the bars on that street cater to very young people).

Saturday
*Saturday was my biggest test. CP and I were going to have to get my Dad out of the condo and keep him out for 5 hours. Because we just bought a house and my Dad likes to help with interior decorating, we decided to hit up every single furniture/home furnishings store. CP and I lingered on some of the stupidest things, even making up things that we needed for our house in order to draw out the day. Four hours into it my Dad was tired and we had to do a quick switch-off with my sister. CP was convinced that my Dad knew that something was up, but as friends and family gathered at the condo and yelled “SURPRISE” when he opened the door, his reaction was priceless. Of course there was plenty of wine and champagne flowing, so we drank too much (again).

Sunday
*Once again we were hungover, so when my sister suggested heading to a bar to watch the Bears game, we agreed. Unfortunately, the bar we headed to catered to young 20-year-olds or meatheads. Despite the fact that most people around us were in their late 20s/early 30s they brought out numerous beer funnels and drinking accessories. In my heyday, I love a good beer funnel and CP and I did shotgun a beer recently. However, I don’t think that I ever brought any of those things into a bar and really, I’m a bit old for it now.

Some guy pounded half of a pitcher of beer in a few seconds using some kind of tube contraption that you pushed towards the person and I swore he was going to puke it up all over me (amazingly he didn’t). There was also a water gun that shot liquor into a person's mouth. For the most part we were able to put up with the silly antics, but right as the game was ending and we were about to leave one of the guys popped open two bottles of champagne and started squirting them everywhere. That was pretty awesome (not) because CP and I already had on our clothes for our plane trip home. We were WAY too old and hungover for that crap. After hanging out at my friend’s place in Wrigleyville for a while, it was time to catch our plane.

*Food: The only good thing about The Stretch Bar was their burgers. I had a burger with BBQ pulled pork on top and it was delicious (not to mention super duper healthy I’m sure).

To conclude, we ate and drank WAY too much. CP and I will subsist on salads, stir fries and water for at least a week. But boy did we have a good time. :-)


(Note: Blogger is not currently uploading pictures which is extremely frustrating. I had a few to put in this post, but I guess not today.)

Current loves

Things that I am currently loving:

The friction block stick from Band-Aid. (Note: I have NOT been asked to review this product, nor was I sent a free sample.) Because it is no longer flip-flop season in the Northeast, I have had to start wearing shoes with backs once again. Booooo. Usually this time of the year is very painful and I do whatever I can do to either wear sneakers or backless shoes. However, after finding this product, I no longer have blisters on the backs of my feet. WIN!



Speaking of shoes, I am currently loving these babies that I picked up from an L.L.Bean Outlet store. I don’t usually go for pink, but they are SO COMFORTABLE. And now I want to add more brown to my wardrobe just to wear them all the time!

Pay no attention to the boats that I call feet....

Chai tea. CP and I are both sick and we have so far resisted turning the heat on (despite the fact that we are starting to dip into the 30s at night). So chai tea, with a splash of milk and some honey is the perfect drink!

My taste is music is varied. Recently I have been purchasing music for my runs. There are three songs right now that I am currently digging:

Taio Cruz- Dynamite



Enrique Inglesias f/ Pitbull- I Like It



I can’t believe that I actually purchased an Enrique Inglesias, but this song is just so CATCHY. And Pitbull? He just can’t stop making songs that I want to run to. The man is genius. OH NO I just found out that this song is on the Jersey Shore soundtrack. (hangs head in shame) And why is Enrique styling his hair like Justin Bieber in the video??

Flo Rida f/ David Guetta- Club Can’t Handle Me



Oh god. And this song is from Step Up 3D? (hangs head even lower)

I swear that I am not a teenybopper, but any song that makes this white girl want to get down on the dance floor (when I am NOT one for the clubs)? Is good for running.

The other song that I can’t get enough of?

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros- Home



It is such an odd song for the NFL to pick for a commercial seeing as the band members are the biggest hippies I have seen in a while, but still. LOVE this song. If you watch the video, it is from Letterman so you can see their tree-hugging, no showering ways. :-)

What are you loving these days?

Torture

So after a downer of a Monday post (thank you for all of your comments btw), I turn to now being tortured by CP. Specifically, by an email he sent to me this morning.

This past weekend CP and I took Fuzzy Britches on a long walk at the nearby Reservoir. It was a pretty awesome walk as we saw a HUGE red-tailed hawk fly across the path and scoop up some sort of prey. He then sat in a tree as we walked by. We were bummed we didn’t bring our camera. :-(

Red-tailed hawk (picture from here)

So towards the end of the walk, we spotted another Bernese Mountain Dog. While we saw a lot of FB’s relatives out west, we haven’t seen too many in CT and MA. So we got to talking to Gus and his owner. Gus could have been FB's brother, just 50 pounds heavier (and taller). He had similar markings, they panted the same way, they sat the same way, and had other similar mannerisms. Adorable. Simply adorable.

Anyway, we asked where Gus came from and found out that he was from a breeder in NC (FB came from a breeder in PA). After we finished talking to Gus’ owner we remarked that we should look into the NC breeder if we were ever seriously going to think about getting another Berner. You have to be careful with overbreeding and hip problems with the breed. When we got home I looked up the website and almost died. Then I showed the website to CP who contacted them (without my knowledge). They then sent pictures like this:

Check out those paws!!!

All puppy photos from Swiss Kisz Farm

And they are so freakin’ cute that I just want to EAT THEM. Or snuggle with them.

So I emailed CP back and asked if he was having fun torturing me. He said that he was. (Jerk) I did mention that if he happened to think that getting a puppy was a good idea, the email did say that there will be a litter in December. Even if we get pregnant this month then that leaves two months or so to train the puppy before a baby would show up (thinking that the puppy would be 8 weeks or so in Feb)… So the puppy would be potty trained by then (right? It’s been a looong time since I have had a puppy). And I would have two months or so at home with a puppy and a baby.

Okay so maybe that is a crazy plan, but I don’t seem to be getting pregnant any time soon so we might as well work on the puppy. Right? ;-)

Sadly, since we are currently on budget crackdown (aka Operation Spend No Money), I can't imagine that he actually contacted them to seriously inquire into getting a puppy. I mean it would make an AWESOME anniversary gift, birthday gift, Christmas gift, etc......

*FYI- posting may be light the rest of this week as I am away on business and don't know if I am going to have access to a computer.*

Feeling more like home

This weekend CP’s mom came down from NH to help us clean out the MA rental house and unpack boxes in our CT house. Her presence was INVALUABLE. Not only do I feel more at home now, but more stuff has been put away and more boxes broken down.

CP and I rushed to paint the living room as our new furniture from Bassett was going to be delivered yesterday (btw, we would totally use them again). Before we bought the house, the living room was a pale yellow color. Not a bad color, but once we bought the new furniture, we knew that we had to repaint the walls.

We painted the walls a mocha color. After putting in recessed lighting, we also had to repaint the ceiling so we went with a very light gray.

The stripes are because we were painting over wood paneling and the roller couldn't get into the cracks. The large painted spot above the fireplace is where CP put a ridonkulously large flat screen tv.

Our new couch and rug. I LOVE our new rug!!!!

Our new chair (there are two).

After the furniture was delivered, we headed over to Crate & Barrel to find a coffee table and end tables. We had over $200 in gift certificates so we thought it would be silly to go anywhere else for the furniture. We ended up buying this coffee table (Basque java):

And two side tables in the same style:

(Pictures from Crate & Barrel website)

The coffee table and end tables won't be in for two weeks, but after a long weekend of working hard, CP and I relaxed on our new furniture, while Fuzzy Britches enjoyed laying on the new rug instead of a wood floor.

After this weekend I feel a bit more settled in our new house. What did you do this weekend?

Bastards

This week, CP and I stepped outside to check on the garden and saw this:




We looked at each other with surprise. What the heck ate the leaves off two of our tomato plants? Not only were leaves gone, but chunks of our green, still-ripening heirloom tomatoes.

Damn it. We didn't get to enjoy tomatoes last year because there was not enough sun. Are we going to go through another year without tomatoes???

What could have done this? Deer? A deer may be the only thing that is tall enough to reach the leaves. The two tomato plants to the left were virtually unscathed. Did the zucchini prickles keep the deer at bay?

Then we spotted these biznitches:



That's right. These three motherf*ers (aka Horned Tomato Worms) ate about 15 tomatoes and most of the leaves on two of our tomato plants. Bastards.

For comparison, here is what the two still-healthy tomato plants look like:

We then had to cut off all of the branches that were missing leaves (so that we could tell if there were more worms) and vigilantly watch the plants to make sure that there were only three worms. According to my mom, they are only around for about a week or so a year and eat everything in sight before dropping to the ground to turn into moths.

So far we haven't seen any more missing leaves or found any more worms. But our tomatoes are finally starting to ripen. Yay!

In fact, I just picked these tonight when I got home from work:

Because of the horned tomato worms, we sadly will not have enough tomatoes to make tomato sauce this year. *tear* So instead, we have been eating a lot of this:

That's right. Fresh tomato slices with a pinch of sea salt. CP's mom used to "make" this dish all the time and I am loving it!

Next year we are just going to have to be more careful about these stupid worms.

*NOTE: I'm sorry for the poor quality pictures. I think that my camera cord is now packed away. I promise that once we move into our new house I will stop taking pictures with my Blackberry!*