Big Ears

 

Yesterday my friend Mike sent me an email stating that his dachshund Toby was a little bit more handsome than Sammy.  Yeah - whatever!  I obviously didn't agree.  He also attached these two pictures.  I will admit that Toby is quite handsome, but what struck me most about the pictures is look at the size of their ears!  Will Sammy ever go into his?!  It made me laugh.  And now I must chase my dog - he is barking at me and I don't want him to wake up Uncas.  Happy Saturday!

A Dog's Life

My friend Lisa tagged me in FaceBook to come up with 25 random things. I have done too many of those random things lately, and can't think of anything else about me that people would possible want to know, or that I would actually want people to know about me. So I decided to do a little twist. 25 things from Sammy's point of view. Enjoy!

25 Random Things - Sammy's Point of View

Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

Hi - this is Sammy, Summer's dog here. Mama is tired of trying to come up with more random things about herself, so she is letting me do this one.

1. I like to chew things - especially Mama's slippers. I almost got another one last night but daddy took it away from me.

2. I don't like being alone - ever. Even if I just sleep all day.

3. Because I am home alone most days, I tend to sleep, so I have lots and lots of energy when Mama and daddy get home from work.

4. I like to bark when I want attention or when something goes under the couch and I can't reach it.

5. I bark when the door bell rings.

6. I bark when there is a door bell or dogs barking on tv.

7. I bark when I hear something out of the ordinary.

8. I like riding in the car. Now that I am bigger, I like to sit up on Mama's lap while she is driving and look out the window. On long car trips, I usually sleep because often I end up somewhere that has new people and usually dogs to play with.

9. I like to chew on rawhides.

10. My best friend is Sophie Nimz. She is a springer spaniel and she is always up for playing with me - love her!

11. I like going for walks.

12. I do not like going for walks when there is all this white stuff on the ground.

13. I do not like this cold weather or this white stuff (although sometimes it's fun to eat the white stuff). Will the warm weather ever return?

14. My favorite spot in the house is in the dining room (I don't understand why they call it that - I eat in the kitchen). There is this spot in the wall that warm air comes out of and I love laying there.

15. My second favorite spot is in the living room. It also has a warm air spot like I like to lay by.

16. I like to play chase with Mama and daddy inside our house. The floors are slippery, but I like to run in circles.

17. When I am getting chased, I like to have something in my mouth. It can be a ball, rawhide or some other toy.

18. I like to lay on Mama's lap or next to my daddy on the couch.

19. I have two cousins, Tina and Snoopy who I like to play with. They look like me, but they don't play as much as I do. Tina is kind of grumpy and sometimes growls at me when I try and play with her.

20. I like to lick babies. I have two cousins (Saffy and Anna) and I love to lick their faces.

21. I like to chew on towels. I don't have access to many anymore, but I remember that chewing on them is fun.

22. I like to be outside when the weather is warm. I can sniff in the yard for hours.

23. I used to have a lot of toys, but Mama and daddy always take them away from me when I get down to the white stuff. Now I have very few.

24. I can sit, shake (with both hands), stay and lay down. Mama calls them my "tricks".

25. I love to sleep the big bed, curled up next to Mama and daddy. It took me nine months to train them to do that.

Bowling for Dollars!

Last night Uncas and I went bowling with Matt and Janis. Back in December we had them over to our house to play a little bit of Wii bowling. It was fun, but we though that it would be fun to do the real thing. And we did have a good time, however I am much better at Wii bowling. I didn't even break 100 in either of the two games that we played. We split the cost of the bowling and shoe rental, but had $5 in change left. So we decided that the first person to get a strike would win the #5. That was Janis. But then we thought it would be more fun to pass the $5 to however got a strike and then the person with the last strike would keep it. It passed hands many times through out the night. Despite my poor bowling, I did end up with it once. But in the end, Janis ended up with the $5.

After bowling we went to this little bar in Richfield called Sandy's for dinner. It's this tiny hole in the wall place with good greasy food. I had an Olive burger (burger with cheese, green olives and sour cream - yum!) Our server, who also might be one of the owners was very funny and came over dinner with a dessert tray.

Check out all of our fun bowling pictures.

Tagged!

 

Oh wow - I can't believe I haven't posted since Wednesday.  I sure have thought about it a lot.  Today I have a couple of posts to get caught up.  But first my dear friend Ella tagged me this week and now I am to post ten honest things about myself.  Here we go:

1. My co-worker "Sally" and I make up nicknames for the people we work with, so when we email each other (she does sit on the other side of the office), we use those.  It's silly and immature, but we need all the fun we can get at the office.
2. I suck at bowling - no matter how many lessons or classes, I still couldn't break 100 last night.  I am going to stick to Wii bowling.
3. I have terrible eyesight.  I am pretty sure that I would be declared legally blind.  I have thought about getting the Lasek surgery, but I am worried about the long-term effects.  Still, maybe one day I will go through with it.  For now, I wear my contacts pretty much daily.
4. I like to bake, but I don't enjoy particularly difficult recipes. I like sticking with the basics.
5. I love my DVR.  If I didn't have it, I would probably waste more time in front of the tv on weeknights like I used to.  It would be really hard to give it up.
6. I love the Oscars.  Actually, I like most award shows.  I think I used to like them more, but for some reason I am fascinated by them.
7. My puppy continues to amaze me.  I can't believe how much joy he has brought to my life and I can't imagine living in our house without.  What did we do before Sammy? (ok - I have to share - just after typing this sentence, Sammy came into the living room and scooted his butt across the rug.)
   
8. I wish I lived closer to my family, but I love living in the Twin Cities, so unfortunately, I don't think that's going to change anytime soon.
9. I am obsessed with Facebook.  Basically I just like going on it and checking everyone's status.  I am not the greatest at writing to people and returning messages.
10. I am a practical thinker.  This often prevents me from dreaming too big and taking risks.  Fortunately I married someone who is the exact opposite.  

Ok - now I need to tag some people.  I pick Lisa , Molly, and Jessie.

Today's Adventure

Seriously - why does going to any sort of medical care place end up in drama for Uncas? First a few years ago I made him go to the eye doctor. He ended up passing out TWICE while there. He hasn't been back since. Let's hope his eyes don't change much. Then yesterday Uncas went to the doctor. He hadn't been in a few years (like 10), so it was time. But now today he is achy, dizzy, nauseous, and has a fever of 102. Why? We are thinking it's from his tentanus shot. So, he's hanging out on the couch while his wife takes care of him. At this rate, I will never get him to go back to the doctor either. At least nothing has happened to him at the dentist . . . yet!

Time for Lost!!!

Back to the Grind

Does he look comfortable? For some reason Sammy like to be sandwiched between these two pillows at my parent's house this weekend. Maybe it kept him warm, but it also made him look very cute!

We made it back safe and sound from WI. We stopped to visit my grandma on the way home. She is doing pretty well, so it was nice to catch up with her for a bit. I had a lot of fun this weekend sorting through pictures. We made a lot of progress, although there are still a lot of pictures to go through, but I think my mom has a good game plan. I may have to go back in a few months to see how she is progressing. You know - it's like a reality tv show and then they go back and check in a few months later to see if they have fallen off the wagon. Fortunately my mom has a digital camera, so it's not like she is going to be developing a ton more film. Although, we did find an undeveloped roll of film in one of the boxes! I would have taken pictures of the weekend, but Uncas kept the camera to take pictures of his ice fishing adventure with his dad. I took a few with my mom's camera, but I don't know if she discovered them yet.

My dad and I went for a little drive on Sunday, and we each took a few pictures with his camera. Mine didn't turn out too well, but it was still a good time. The bald eagle is our favorite bird and they never fail to amaze me.

I've been a little behind on the treadmill since I was gone for the weekend. I did run 3 miles (all in a row - no breaks) on Friday night and tonight I walked for 2 miles. I hope to make up some milage since we'll be in town this weekend.

Well, I am off to watch Fringe and with all the excitement around the inauguration today (which was very cool - we watched Obama get sworn in live at work via the computer) I have nearly forgotten that tomorrow night is Lost! I can't wait!!!

Blurry, Toss; Duplicate, Toss . . .

My mom and I are hard at work sorting through her pictures. She has just a couple . . . million! Going through all of these pictures is a little bit like being a detective. What year did you take a trip up north? What grade was I in this school photo? We have discovered some funny hair-dos (I don't think I had a good hair day between the ages of 2-13!) and some clothes that my mom still has - about 20 years later!!! It's been fun and brings back a lot of good memories. I don't think we have even gone through a quarter of them yet . . . so I better get back to it!

Is That Suppose To Make Me Feel Better?

As I was watching the news this morning, you know, to see if I really had to go to work, they said only 36 more hours of sub-zero temperatures . . . oh - that's all . . .

Animal Hospital

 

 Here is the group picture of the toys that Uncas and I repaired the other night.  There are even a couple missing from this pile!

Butterfly is missing part of his wing.

Mr. Moose is missing one of his ears.

I don't know why this pictures is turned funny, but Ninja Squirrel is missing a foot.

And finally Mr. Possum has his nose in the wrong spot.

As you can see, we name all of his toys - well most of them anyways.  Sammy has already destroyed three of the toys that we repaired the other.  They are back on the top shelf of my dresser and will stay there for a little while.  We need a few more up there to really make it worth it . . .

In other news - we are back to a one car family.  Uncas's car isn't starting due to the weather.  I think by this weekend, it should be just fine.  For now I need to get back to catching up with Lost!

Sacnu Hospital

That was our house last night - the hospital. Uncas and I performed "surgery" on several of Sammy's toys that he had chewed up. It was great fun to see his reaction to some of his old favorites. Of course, he has already chewed up two of them, so they are back up on the dresser until we decide to play doctor again. I have pictures, but I am too lazy to post tonight.

Some updates on the treadmill. I went 2 miles on Sunday and I ran 2 miles tonight. One of the things that I love about having a treadmill at home is that I said I was going to run all night. I finally got my butt downstairs just before the 10 o'clock news. But it's so much easier going down there then getting in my car and driving somewhere. And there is no wait. My total miles for 2009 is just over 25. That's about 5% of my goal to 500.

For all you Lost fans out there - just over a week until the season premier - hurray! Tomorrow night Uncas and I plan to watch the season finale from last year to prepare us. I can not wait to watch it on our new tv. I know - very shallow of me, but it's going to be so great!

Grown-Up Bed

Just this week I was telling Uncas that we needed to do something about the comforter situation on our bed.  Currently we have a very lovely quilt that my mom is letting us borrow.  I really like it a lot, but it's red and doesn't go the greatest with the blue that we have on our wall and it's too thin for a Minnesota Winter.  Regarding that last statement - Uncas has a "5 blanket system" in place to stay warm enough each night - that's more than a little riduculous.  Then - this week, I read my friend Ella's blog and they recently made some changes to their bedroom, so I was inspired.  Today I went out shopping (after doing some browsing online) and found a new comforter for our room.  I finally feel like we have a "grown-up" bed.  Check it out:

 

I am not quite an expert at staging, but you get the idea.  I was looking for something neutral, but not completely plain or boring.  I also bought some new pillows.  I can't wait to go to bed tonight!

I mainly spent today cleaning and shopping.  I found a new pair of slippers and after I brought them home, I explained to Sammy that these are mine and he can't eat them.  Let's see if he listens (and more importantly, if I actually keep them out of his reach).

So my weekend has consisted of cooking, cleaning, shopping, waiting on my sick husband, chasing my dog around the house (and I even fell once, pretty hard) and watching season 1 of How I Met Your Mother.  Good times.  

And for your viewing pleasure - a picture of the tasty apple pie that I made and a cute picture of Sammy.

Take Two

I am happy to report that my second pie this week -the apple pie, turned out much better than the blueberry. Uncas actually finished the whole piece, which is better than when he tried the blueberry pie. It's always good to follow up a crappy baking session with a good one.

Today has been a rather lazy, but not really Saturday. To start - I had a wonderful night's sleep, again. Sammy and I got up and hung out together this morning while we let Uncas sleep in. Unfortunately he (Uncas) woke up yesterday with a cold. He slept for over 12 hours last night and pretty much has been very, very low key today.

I kept busy by baking muffins, baking the pie, making chili and baking pumpkin bread. I also ran out to Target, did some laundry, picked up a little bit around the house, rocked out to Guitar Hero, planned our menu for the week and ran 3 miles (including the walking, I totaled 4 for the day). So now we are sitting on the couch and watching some tv. I hope Uncas starts feeling better tomorrow!

Defeated

I give up. I am defeated. I give in . . . he wins.

Sammy is now sleeping in our bed. It just started really the night before last. At 4 am in the morning, I had had enough. Enough of him getting up and barking at us in the middle of night. Enough of him tearing apart his bed in the middle of the night. Enough of waking up and not being able to fall back to sleep. We have had Sammy for over 6 months and it hasn't gotten any easier.

So - I said screw it when he got up to bark at me at 4 am, again, after Uncas had been up with him at least two other times before. I put him in bed with me and he curled right up and we slept great. Uncas didn't even know he was there. That morning as we were getting ready for work, I told Uncas that I was done and that Sammy was sleeping in our bed. He didn't comment, so I brought it up again later that day. Unlike me, Uncas isn't so quick to give in and wouldn't admit defeat. But last night Sammy slept with me, in our bed, and I slept great.

Go ahead Derek - laugh it up and say "I told you so"! We held out for a long time and we did try our best. Our dog completely has us trained . . . crap!

'Fessing Up

If that last post didn't put my dad over the edge, I have a feeling this one will. So that pie I made yesterday . . .in all honesty - not the greatest. The crust was actually really good, but the filling - not so much. I had this feeling while I was making it that there was too much sugar. I should have trusted my gut.

I got the recipe from Betty's Pie recipe book. Betty's Pies (a restaurant) is famous up in the Two Harbors area. Uncas has felt that Betty's Pies are too sweet and sugary and doesn't really like them. I did make another pie from that book - a blueberry-apple pie, and I had the ingredients to make that pie, but chose the plain blueberry pie instead.

So - after eating only two pieces of the pie last night, we threw the rest of it away tonight. Tomorrow I will make just an apple pie. I make some darn good apple pie, so I know it will turn out!

Oh - nearly forgot - I walked 3 miles today.

The Pie My Dad Didn't Get To Eat

Someone was giving me a hard time for not blogging every day. So to that I say - I had a homemade pie tonight and you didn't! (I know - very mature!)

In other news . . . well, there really isn't anything new or exciting to report. I don't think I have listed my treadmill update, but last night I walked 3.35 miles. That means I only have 486.15 miles left to walk/run this year to reach my goal. I may head down there tonight while watching some of the People's Choice Awards.

There's Always Next Year . . .

Trust me, as a Cubs fan, I am used to defeat.  So it was no great surprise or disappointment to me that the Vikings lost yesterday.  Next year could be their year - you never know!  But, despite the lose, I had a great time at my first professional football game.  I also learned some new and interesting things:

1.  The color combination of purple and gold is just not that pretty to me.  And purple and gold pajama pants are particularly ugly (I saw more than one grown man wearing these yesterday).  Let's just say that the fashion at the game had little to be desired.

2.  I did not realize that you actually cheer louder when the other team has the ball.  Apparently we were trying to distract them or something.  It worked really well . . . and not to mention the fact that when it was quiet during our offense, I sometimes forgot to watch the field because I didn't think anything was going on.

3.  Whenever the Vikings scored a touchdown this flag brigade comes running across the field.  I was intrigued at how they stayed uniformly spaced from each other - that takes talent.  The cheerleaders couldn't even accomplish the even spacing thing during their routine.

4.  People come running on the field during the tv time outs and the players actually do quite a bit of standing around.  In fact, they more do more standing around than actual playing.

But as I said earlier, I really did enjoy the game.  I took some pictures and even a video.  I would definitely consider going to another game - but only if they keep an indoor stadium.  It was pretty dang cold yesterday and I can't imagine sitting outside in the minus 10 degree weather for football.

The Holiday Season Comes to a Close

We finally took a picture of the family in front of our Christmas tree - granted it was NYE, but at least we got one good picture in before we take it down (which will be today). We had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas and NYE with my parents. I could not wait to give them their gift.

As you can see - Sammy was equally excited about the red toaster! My parents have recently added a red garbage can, red Kitchen Aid mixer, and a red tea kettle to their kitchen, so we thought we would add to the "redness". They have been wanting a long toaster for a while, so when I found out they finally purchased a mixer, I quickly hopped online and purchased immediately!

Uncas received a very cool gift from my parents:

A miter saw! Now I am expecting some great things to be built with it and soon! I received many cool things - some new shirts, the "ove glove", a new knife block, and some Wii remotes. We already had enough Wii-motes, so we returned them for . . .

Yup - Guitar Hero! It was fun to see my mom "rock-out"! It's been fun to play, although Uncas is the one with all the musical talent in the family, so he actually tries it on Medium, while I stick to easy.

As I mentioned earlier, we went to the CSI Experience on Thursday. First stop was lunch at Red Lobster - yum! Then we ran over to Lands' End Inlet (where Uncas and I both worked at and met) to do a little shopping. I found some slippers as did my dad, but the funniest thing of the weekend happened there. Two little boys were running around and one ran into me and started to cling to my legs. He didn't look up at me, but I was like "Hey, I am not your mommy". His brother kept saying that too "it's not mom", but he was just crying and clinging. So I am walking around, trying to pry this kid off of me while my mom and Uncas were laughing (my poor dad missed the whole event as he was in the bathroom). Their dad was just a few feet away and he was trying to tell the boy that I was not his mom and he finally had to pry the kid off of me and pick him up. It was sooo funny. His mom finally showed up and the little boy threw his arms around her so tightly. Poor kid!

Anyhow - back to the CSI exhibit. We first watched a little intro movie and then there were 3 crime scenes. We were assigned to scene #1. A car collided with a house. We had 4 minutes to view the scene and then we had all these different stations to go to, to review and analzye the evidence. Overall the exhibit was interesting, although if we had kids that were like 10 or 11, I bet they would have enjoyed it more. Surprisingly it did take about 45 minutes to go through the whole thing. We had to wait at a couple of the stations, but it wasn't too bad. After the exhibit, we walked around the museum for a while. When we got home we watched some tv and played Apples to Apples - which is alway hiliarous with my parents.

Friday we ventured out to the crowded Mall of America. We got some fabulous deals at Sears, including a $25 DVD player. We weren't at the mall for too long, but long enough to have lots of bags. And after we purchased Guitar Hero, we decided that we needed to go home because we had too much to carry. That night we played Guitar Hero for a bit as well as some bowling. My cousin Tyler came over from WI because he was leaving for Belize the next day and we were giving him a ride to the airport. We played some Rabbids with him before we headed to bed way too late.

Yesterday I was up early to the airport and then my parents left in the morning. Then I proceeded to do nothing for the rest of the day. I was completely exhausted. But I think I am caught on my sleep now. Today I have much to do, but I am going to attend my first professional football game ever, so I don't think I will get that much done. Oh well . . . I know I took a couple of days off from blogging, but now I hope to get back to the daily posting.

Cute Sammy picture from the weekend:

New Year - New Things!

Well, I have heard from two people who want me to continue my daily blogging. Lucky for all of you, they happen to be two really, really important people in my life (my mom and my best friend!), so for now I will attempt to keep up with the daily blogging. I actually added a link on my Facebook page to my blog, so maybe I will have a few new readers this year. The other "new thing" that I have added is a counter to my blog. My father tried to add one to his blog, but was stuck, so this morning, we added them to his and mine. And then we realized that we couldn't have picked a better day to start counting - the first of the year!

This afternoon we are headed to St. Paul to check out the CSI Experience at the Science Museum. When I first heard about the exhibit, of course I was interested given my love CSI and Gil Grissom. I wasn't sure if we would make over to check it out, but somehow it came up yesterday and my mom thought it would be a fun thing to do. I will write my recap after we return.