Wandering Mind

I am having one of those days where I just can't really focus on anything long enough to be productive in any meaningful way. My mind is everywhere.

I wish we had a real life Dexter who targeted animal abusers.  Wouldn't that be the coolest?  I would happily sponsor and endorse and aid and abet such a person.

I wonder if there's a good app for cross-country drives, a guide of places to check out or something along those lines. There must be. I need to remember to look into that.

I finally found the magic hair product that lets my wavy/curlyish hair air dry without turning fuzzball. This means I am officially ready for summer!

Ever notice that white Escalades are almost always driven (very poorly) by someone with a wicked bad fake tan and a cell phone glued to their ear? Those things are immensely ugly and oversized.  They seem way too dangerous to be open for ownership by the general (phone-focused) public. 

I don't know if I'm just getting old and ornery but man am I just not feeling social media lately.  (And by lately I mean for the past year or more at increasing levels of severity.)  It's like reading bad fiction or being a fly on a wall at a dysfunctional support group.  My fb feed sets off my internal BS detector constantly. To much pretending and posturing and attention-seeking going on out there. Maybe I'll fall back into the herd one of these days. Anything is possible, right?

Oooooooooooo.  My thoughts started taking a cynical-sounding turn there. 

Eh, I'm a balanced person.  Not too sunny, not too cloudy.

The weekend is shaping up to be extremely busy.  Well, busy, at least.  Tonight is our chance to chill at home with the pups.  Homemade pizzas and family night.  Yay!

Upgrades Rule

Verizon does, indeed, bleed their customers dry on charges, and they harass me like an overzealous stalker when they have something they want to talk to me about (how was your service?, you gonna pay us that bill due 20 minutes ago? etc...).  But my excitement over the ability to upgrade to apple after being on the android experience for years was more than my common sense could overpower.

I've re-verizoned.  This time with a fancy new iphone, which I love (probably to the point of hitting my data limit way too soon if I don't chill on the not-at-home phone play time).

I've been a mac fan for years, lauding the wonders of an apple over pretty much every other type of computer I owned before my mbp.  Yet, for whatever reason, I resisted the switch to the iphone.  In all honesty, I know several people who have destroyed their screens and my dropsy ways have me paranoid.  But I'm taking a risk and facing my fears.  The faster camera shutter speed was the factor that drove my final decision.  Yay! More and better dog photos! All the time!

Little Lucy, sleeping like a champ after a long day of play and walks.

Actually, I'm completely misrepresenting with this photo.  It is the product of an iphone, but J took it. 

His current role of consultant extraordinarre (I sort of made up that title, but it works) leaves me envious of the amount of time he gets to spend with the pups at the house.  They, of course, are psyched.  If he starts working in weekday bike and beach time, I'm quitting my job to appoint myself his personal assisstant of the professional realm.

Sad and Neglected

I was under the misguided impression that finishing school would leave lots of time to keep up with this thing regularly.

HA!

...heading over to work on finishing a bunch of saved blog bits to fill in the last few weeks of my sad and neglected blog.

My new misguided declaration is "once I have my new iphone it'll be easier to upload photos over here, thus resulting in me keeping up with this thing regularly."  I'm expecting a better quality camera will rekindle my love of photographing things of interest, like dogs doing things and ...that's about it lately.  Maybe summer's increased outdoor activity level will help, too... if it ever gets here. 

Someday I'll be better at this.

(you can "HA!" now, too.)

I Almost Took My Coat Off

J and I went to Boston yesterday.

We deposited a check at his faraway bank.

We got awesome coffee at 1365 and met up with Judd for a visit.

We went to Life Alive for a flipping fantastic lunch.

We meandered over to the Museum of Science for a day of fun and education.

I did a stellar job of navigating around traffic with my almost dead phone to get us to FoMu.

We had super tasty ice cream and brought a bunch home (gotta stock up when you're almost an hour away).

We were welcomed home by happy pups and played furiously in the back yard for a while.

We settled in with a movie and a bunch of blankets to a cozy night at home.

It was a seriously sweet day.

It was almost a warm day.

I left my coat in the car and wore an extra warm cardigan in its place.

I'd like to take that as a sign that things are looking up weather-wise.

I'm a glass half full kinda gal.

Making lightning at the Museum of Science.

I Call BS

As of yesterday it is officially spring.
It snowed yesterday, and today.
Not cool.

I am so deeply immersed in my daydreams of bike rides and beach play time yet the weather is acting so uncooperatively.  It's making me a little sad and a lot annoyed and impatient.  I'm starting to revisit the dreams of moving to somewhere warmer.  I spent a little too much time today house shopping in Texas, the Carolinas, Tennessee, California, even Florida, and emailing listings to J with enticing pleas like "check out the awesome pool!" and "it'd be as much as the current mortgage!".  He played along like the awesome guy that he is, though really, I know he's just as open to the idea of relocating to warmer places. 
Cold weather lasts, on average, from October through Aprilish here in New England.  That's 7 months of cold!  Toasty warmth is mid June until maybe mid September, if we're lucky.  This is a horribly unbalanced warm to cold ratio.  I love my friends and family, and it's the only thing that's kept me here this long.  I'm starting to think I can handle lots of plane trips home to visit.

Back the Way it Should Be

I retrieved J from the airport Saturday night just before midnight (complete with cupcakes), and we made it home early Sunday morning, unscathed after our drive back from Boston on St Paddy's celebration night.

The dogs were so happy to see him.  They jumped around excitedly and begged him for some playtime.  Lucy just stood in front of him as close as she could get and stared up at him.  It appeared that she was telepathically sharing with him the events of her week and her happiness at his return.  He leaned in and received a shower f smooches from the happy little pup. So cute. We stayed up for a while as he unpacked the goodies from his luggage that he brought home for us.

After a good sleep-in on Sunday morning I woke up ahead of J (thank you, pups) and snuck down to the kitchen to make oatmeal blueberry waffles.  Yum!  We decided to have a day at home, just us and the pups and some movies and good food.  A recuperation day for my travel weary sweetie, and a chance to spend time together before the work week starts after the long week apart.

I made an old favorite for dinner that I haven't made in ages.  Pizza frittes!  A childhood favorite; little fried dough pizzas.  They are not THE most healthy thing in the world, but definitely an ultimate comfort food.

The little frittes waiting to be eaten.

My super tasty vegan fritte, with daiya mozz shreds under a steamy hot marinara.

We caught up on Walking Dead before watching last night's new episode.  It's getting good as the season nears its close.  There's just two or three episodes left... and then we'll have to console ourselves with Game of Thrones.  That means the GoT night get togethers are just around the corner. 

Today it's back to work, but at least I know that tonight when I get home, I will have three happy dogs and a cute fella to come home to ... just the way it should be. 

Oh, and the cupcakes came out awesome!

Vegan chocolate stout cupcakes with whiskey buttercream frosting and whiskey caramel drizzle.
Delicious.

Return, Please!

J gets back tomorrow night from his week-long gig at SXSW.  The pups are going to be beside themselves with excitement (and so will I).  We miss him lots.

In his absence we've been keeping busy.  So far I've primed most of the kitchen, slightly redesigned the bathroom, changed out the shower head, cleaned the place inside out, and broken the dryer. Yay!  That last one I'm not so proud of, but I truly don't think it's broken, I remain confident that there is a simple fix I am overlooking. And hopefully a fresh set of eyes on Sunday will figure it out.

The shower head change-out was by no means the easy task I expected, but after two days and some help from the HD, I finally got the right part to fit a modern shower head to the tiny little old school pipe that rises from the faucet on the old claw foot upstairs. The old shower head had developed a few errant offshoots that left it needing to be positioned a specific way to be contained by the shower curtain. This is a problem no longer.  Shower time pretty much rules now.

Tomorrow I am planning a lazy weekend day with the pups, followed by a restock trip to Wholefoods, and some very serious vegan Irish cupcake making before I have to head up to Boston to fetch my travel-weary love.  I found what appears to be an awesome recipe for vegan chocolate stout cupcakes with whisky buttercream frosting.  My fingers are crossed, but it certainly looks like a good recipe.  Then, my only goal is to not eat them all before I go get J.

Aside from the house stuff, the pups and I have had a very low key week.  Lots of hanging together and reading.  The TV was only on once all week, mainly as background noise and pup distraction when I was painting in the kitchen.

Ollie has designated himself the protector of the family while J is away.  It's a role he takes on fairly often, really, but he's been extra vigilant this week, listening to every sound, growling and barking at any potential threat, and sticking his nose out the mail slot each time he passes by to ensure nothing out of the ordinary is out there.  He's even moved off his dog bed to sleep next to me on the bed.  My knight in furry armor.

Lucy and Necco have been doing their part, too. Lucy makes sure I don't forget to feed everyone at exactly the right time each day, and she also naps next to me every chance she gets, which keeps me quite warm and cozy.  Necco is by my side everywhere, my not-so-little helper.  He's cooking and doing laundry with me, and coming to check and make sure I'm okay if I wander away from them for more than 40 seconds.  They're really quite the hard working trio.

We've been waking up at 5:45, taking care of all the feedings, yoga time and work prep before I'm out the door.  And they've been saint-like while I'm at work.  Ollie chewed on a dust pan Wednesday, but he seemed pretty ashamed and apologetic when I found it.  It was his only slip, and since he hasn't been getting walks this week, I'm pretty impressed at how well he's controlled his energy surplus.

The solo three dog household has been easier and more fun to manage than I expected it would be.  But we're so ready for J to come back.  Phone calls and texts just don't compare to having him here with me.  Just 24 1/2 hours to go...

Ollie is a Big Dog

Ollie is, indeed, a big dog.  His head is bigger than anyone else's in this house and I'm pretty sure when he stretches out he's about as tall as me from toes to nose.  He is a vigilant guard dog, a fearsome protector of his family, and an adorable buffoon.

Olle followed me into the bathroom this morning, still wearing the blanket I cover him up with at night when he snuggles down on his pup pillow.  I closed the door behind him and discovered that he takes up quite a lot of the open bathroom space.  Big boy.

After his hello greetings and a few minutes of curious observation, he was ready to move on.  Ollie is not a fan of showers.  I love this photo.  It was snapped just before he decided it was time to leave.  He's such a handsome pup.

Ollie, hanging in the bathroom, wearing his sleep time blanket.
Something about this photo says "these are not the droids you're looking for" to me.

I'm Done!

Grades are in.  A+ in the final class. Yay!

I'm officially done with school forever!

Again. 

Most likely.

Unless I decide to torture myself again for another piece of paper with my name written in fancy caligraphy.

The final number for my GPA is 3.96.  I got a B in one class out of the whole program.  I'm proud of myself mixed with a big dose of annoyed and disappointed over that stupid B.  I like to set unrealistic goals for myself and I came so close on this one.  Boooooooooo.

Oh well.  At least I can move on to bigger and better things now (like not writing papers and working on projects every weekend).