Grab Him and Go!

Oh man!  What a day!  A day that featured the first ever emergency trip to the vet.  I was walking the boys this morning at the very end of the walk just before heading up the stairs Cody lets out a squeal, like a pig.  I look down he has his paw raised as high as he can get it.  I immediately think something is in it so I check it over.  Nothing!  I then think he must have stepped on a nail. Due to the roofs being done there's nails all over the place.  I'm constantly kicking them out of the way so the boys don't step on them. 

I carry him up the stairs put him down inside.  I continue to look him over.  His paw is getting puffy and changing colors.  I call the vet.  The vet suggests I bring him in right away.  I started to take time to put my make-up on but as Cody continued to whimper I quickly decided to simply grab him and go. 

At the vet's office he was a pill.  He crawled under the chairs and then sat there with his paw in the air.  Looking as pathetic as a dog can look!  The vet took a quick look at him yet was unable to determine what was wrong with his paw.  They brought in a doggie microscope and a nurse held him down as the vet soon determined he had been stung by something.  As a result he had a large stinger deep in his paw.  They had to work on his very puffy paw for quite a few minutes to get the stinger out.  Meanwhile, as I look on I'm doing my best to not pass out.  Trust me it was not a pleasant site!

The great news of the day is that Cody has survived whatever stung him.  I seriously thought he was injured by a nail, never did I think he had been stung.  I truly believe Cody thought it was over for him.  He looked so scared and petrified.  He's been put on children's Benadryl for the rest of the week to ward off any allergic reaction.  So it's safe to say Cody will be getting some extra zzz's.  Benadryl makes him sleepy!

Here's a side note that's interesting....Simon hates being left alone.  He whines and cries when I try to take Cody and leave him behind.  Not today he didn't!  There was no issue at all.  He was totally content being left behind.  I think he must have known Cody needed some help right away and mommie was taking Cody to be helped.

Oh the Irony!

Last week I contacted Pastor Bob.  Well actually I never spoke to Pastor Bob I instead talked solely to his wife, Diane.  Anyway, I badly wanted Pastor Bob whom was the pastor at the church I grew up going to, to be the pastor performing our wedding ceremony.  I was willing to pay for him and his wife to fly to Dallas and I was also willing to pay for them to stay at the rather NICE resort in which we will be married at.  I had run some rough figures as to how much I was looking at if I wanted Pastor Bob to come to Dallas.  I determined it would be roughly $1,200. As it turns out Pastor Bob is unable to do the ceremony.  I'm glad I at least tried to get Pastor Bob even though it won't be possible. 

Then a day or two later I needed to talk to my apartment complex about the lease terms they are offering me.  My lease is up on the 31st.  They are offering lease terms of 7 months to 12 months.  Well, obviously even the shortest lease term offered of 7 months is not going to work for me since there's only 4 months until my wedding.  I need a 4 month lease.  I explained the situation to the office staff.  I asked for a 4 month lease first.  They said no.  I then asked if they could extend my current lease, they said no.  Instead they told me I will have to do "month-to-month" for the next 4 months.  When you have no lease and are on "month-to-month" basis it means you pay the market rent rate plus an extra fee.  That extra fee acts as a penalty fee to help force people into a long term deal!  Time for the calculator!...Lets add it up, I'll be paying market rent, plus water/valet trash service, plus the extra fee for not having a long term lease...all adds up to $300 extra for the next 4 months.  Now lets take that math a step further....$300 multiplied by 4 is how much?  $1,200!  Don't you just love life! That $1,200 is the amount I had earmarked for Pastor Bob and Diane to come to Dallas instead I'll be spending it on extra rental fees.

Some might say, oh the irony of it all!  Others like me see the hand of God working in the situation.  Not that I need my faith reaffirmed but when things like this happen it makes me look at the situation in awe! 

That being said I still find it pretty darn rotten of my apartment complex for not being willing to offer a 4 month lease to someone that is getting married.  I have a pretty good reason for not wanting a 7 month lease afterall.  Unfortunate that they have seen my situation as a way to make an extra $1,200 over the next 4 months.   

My Deep Fried Stuffed Avocado!

I love Mexican food!  Of course, I'm a former Zonie!  I have to love Mexican food!  Mexican food and Zonies are like peanut butter and chocolate....they naturally go good together!

Now for me to talk about a menu item on my blog you must understand it had to be unique!  Recently I had something new at a Mexican food restaurant, a deep fried stuffed avocado!  It's a new menu feature.  I was in the mood to try something new so I did.  I have no idea how they deep fried it and kept in tact but they did.  Then again this is Texas where they aren't afraid to deep fry anything.  The Texas State Fair even features deep fried butter sticks! Leave it to Texas to figure out how to deep fry a stuffed avocado.

How they stuffed the avocado is another mystery to me!  Deep into the center of the avocado was a chicken filling.  A filling similar to that of what would be inside a chicken enchilada.  It was awesome!  The entire thing from beginning to end was amazing.  The crispy shell on the outside the yummy avocado with a gooey chicken enchilada center...a definite winner. 

Different, unique, and tasted great.  It had all the qualifications in my opinion!  I just hope enough people are brave enough to try it for it to stay on the menu.  We don't go out to Mexican food that much but when we do happen to go to that particular restaurant that stuffed avocado could be my new go-to menu item! 

Where Do We Live?

Where do we live?....Is likely the first question that came to the boys minds by the end of this past week.  Shuttling the boys between our two homes was the norm last week. 

My apartment complex is putting new roofs on all the buildings so I didn't want to be there too much as our building was one they were focusing on last week.  When the 3 of us were at my apartment I was rather impressed that the boys didn't bark as much as I originally thought they would.  However, the noise level of a new roof being put on your place of residence is enough to drive any human or human with fur nuts!  Not to mention the mess!  It's been such a mess around our place: nails, tarps, and roofing shingles being tossed around.  So back and forth the 3 of us went between the two homes.  Shuttling the boys around might continue this week too.  Since next up for the roofers are the buildings next to ours.  The noise and mess will continues!

As I mentioned previously the Texas Tennis Open was last week too.  So our schedule was a little off some of the days last week.  To get to the Open I had to get the boys walked sooner and fed sooner.  Simon has no objections to eating dinner earlier than usual!  The Tennis Open was lots of fun!  They made quite a few improvements from last year making the tournement more enjoyable for players and spectators.  Plus we were blessed with awesome weather!


I think September temps came a little early.  I still think we might get one more heat wave but then again September is fast approaching so maybe not.  We had a few slight sprinkles yesterday and it's currently raining now as I type this.  Thanks to all the rain in recent weeks we are nice and green here in big D!

These pics were taken as I rushed around getting ready to take the boys over to my fiancé's place.  They barked at the noise of the roofers when it all first started then they got used to it and settled down.  I did not get used to it!  It's headache causing noise!  As you can see Cody was super settled down!  LOL!  Oh this is funny, before leaving our place I took the boys out on the balcony to brush their coats.  Every time the nail gun sounded on our roof above us Cody ducked with extreme fear in his eyes.  He probably thought he was about to be shot! 

 

Rain, Tennis, Acorns, and Brownies!

It was a rainy day here! It started as I took the boys out for their morning walk!  Made me wish I had gotten out of bed sooner.  Cody was likely thinking, "not this liquid stuff again!".  It has been a rather drizzly August, kind of odd. I wonder if we are approaching or have made a record for rainfall in August.

I will be heading to the Texas Tennis Open tomorrow night with my fiancé.  I'm excited!  The rain today stopped just in time for the tennis tourney tonight.  Lucky!  I decided on going tomorrow and also to the final which is on Friday night.  Of course I can't miss the final!  I already got my Texas Tennis Open visor out sitting on my table, it's ready to go! My sweet fiancé bought me a visor at last year's tourney.  Don't worry folks I'll be stylin' as I sit out there in the sun!  I checked the weather report...it's supposed to be sunny tomorrow.  No rain in the forecast for the foreseeable future.  At that news Cody does a dance! 

Acorns have started to fall!  It is Simon's fave time of year when those start to drop down on his head!  They aren't ripe yet but he doesn't care.  He's all about eating things he technically shouldn't eat.  It's so hard getting him to walk up the hill outside our place during acorn season because he's so busy with his mouth hanging wide open as he sucks in acorn after acorn.  He's a vacuum!

I've spent a good portion of the evening thumbing through recipes.  I love casually reading recipes.  I've been looking mostly at brownie recipes tonight.  I need to make brownies for a gift. My special brownie pan had to be tossed as it had become overused.  I've been trying to do without a brownie pan but my preference is for a designated pan for brownies.  I might have to go replace it before making my next batch of brownies. It's driving me nuts not having one!

Football and the Weekend!

Woo-hoo I have NFL Network!  I knew I would love having it again!  My previous cable company here in big D didn't offer NFL Network so I've been living without for 3 long years.  It's been somewhat painful too!  So glad I now have it especially since this season the NFL Network will have Thursday night games starting week 2.  So for the entire season this year there will be Thursday night games as opposed to previous years where Thursday night games don't start until December(after college football ends).  Typically college football has a feature game each Thursday night, this will be interesting to see the NFL and college football going head to head on the most popular TV night! 

While tuning into a bit of the Cardinals game last night I couldn't help but notice all that lovely red!  The background behind the goal post has black, red, and white.  I had to take the opportunity to tease my fiancé about us having black, red, and white as our wedding colors.  Oh and I threw in the suggestion of cardinal birds on the cake!  He laughed it off with a simple reply that we have to include gold!  Gold would of course represent the Cardinal's beak. Ha! Ha! Actually though I have come to realize in all my wedding colors research that black, red, and white is a fairly popular choice for 2012 weddings. 

The Texas Tennis Open started yesterday.  We likely won't make it to any matches until Monday.  I'm not sure which days I'll end up going but my fiancé hopes to go every day of next week.  The matches start late in the afternoon and go until 10 or 11 at night. The Tennis Open will be our nightly entertainment come the new week!

I think we've had more than our fair share of rain for August.  Kind of odd that August has featured thunderstorms.  The other night while my mom was still in town we had a super noisy storm that roared all night long.  When I tried to take the pugs out one at a time in the rain.  Each pug got to the bottom of the stairs looked around then decided to quickly run back upstairs.  I guess neither of them had to go that bad to brave the storm!  More rain due in tonight and tomorrow.  The forecast calls for a real soaker!  We'll see!

We recently realized we haven't watched a movie in about 3 weeks.  Which is out of the ordinary for us! The Olympics and playing Kinect games when my mom was here took up most of our evenings.  This weekend we will try to fit in a little movie watching!     

The Bridal Show!

This past Sunday I went to my first ever Bridal Show.  It was held at the resort in which we will be getting married at.  Perfect opportunity to also take the time to show my mom around the resort.  We first went to the plaza where we will say our "I do's".  Then we made our way to the ballroom.  We just simply peeked inside the ballroom.  That was important to me to see again since I'm still debating our color scheme. 

After we went exploring a bit we then went into the exhibit hall where the Bridal Show was.  I got a button to wear that says "Bride".  Kind of fun wearing a button like that!  Inside the Bridal Show there were booths after booths set up of different vendors services.  Despite the fact that I have the cake bakery chosen already my mom and I still hit up the bakery booths that were giving out samples.  In all we sampled 3 different cakes.  One of the cakes we sampled was almost as big as a real slice of cake!  The other 2 were more like a sample should be. Yummy!

My main mission while at the Bridal Show was checking out booths of different invitation businesses, florists, and bridal jewelry.  Sadly there was only 1 invitation booth and no bridal jewelry. There were a few florists.  We also collected some info on rehearsal dinner catering, decor ideas, and tuxedo info for my fiancé. Oh and we looked at a photographers book of a wedding which had a great color scheme demonstrated for a Christmas wedding.  I actually held my camera phone up to those photographers pics to take a few pics of my own. Definitely helps me picture things when I can see a similar color scheme in action in another wedding.   

Certainly a fun experience.  I hope to go to another Bridal Show as my wedding date gets closer.  That of course depends on how many more things we might need lined up, what type of vendors will be present, and when the next Show is.  I would assume though that at some point in the Fall there will be another show of some kind. 

P.S......I would like to point out that today is August 15th....exactly 4 months until our wedding!   

She Cried!

Well last Friday was my mom's first time to see my wedding dress.  We made an appointment at the bridal boutique early Friday.  When we arrived for my appointment we were told they were having a jewelry show that day which would extend through the weekend.  We instantly started eyeing the jewelry.  The lady that sells the jewelry introduced herself and asked what my jewelry preferences were. 

As the jewelry sales associate looked through her line of jewels for something I might like.  I went to the fitting room to try on the sample dress I ended up purchasing for my mom to see.  The very moment I walked out of the fitting room and towards the "runway" my mom started crying!  She had previously told herself she wouldn't cry...no reason for tears.  And I must say, I didn't expect for her to cry.  My mom's not exactly that type.  Crying for sentimental reasons is not her!

I continued to stand on the "runway" as the jewelry sales associate let me try on jewelry after jewelry. Once I decided I had enough fun in the sample dress and with the jewelry I started to walk away from the runway, that's when my mom quickly declares we'll take the jewelry as well!  I had to put a squash on that because I wasn't completely sold on the jewelry.  It was nice, definitely nice.  But I want to have some time to look around a bit before purchasing. 

It was a good experience.  Fun to look at some jewelry too.  So glad my mom got to see my dress.  Not just see it but I'm happy she had such a positive reaction to it! 

Arrival Day!

Thursday is fast approaching!  The pugs are none the wiser that the arrival of Thursday is also the arrival day of grammie.  They will be at the groomers when grammie hits town.  So their surprise will occur late in the afternoon.

Today was a cloudy day that misted rain.  The last two days have been like that.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.  August is certainly not a picnic weather-wise!  It's a steamy type of hotness!  When there's as much cloud cover as there was today though it's easier to deal with.  I actually made the boys walk extra today because it didn't feel that hot to me!  And neither pug was panting!

I know my mom is anxious to get here.  She'll be happy to know too that I already made an appointment to go try on the dress I ended up purchasing.  Since my mom has only one kid I want to recreate the dress shopping experience for her.  We will go to the boutique I purchased from to try on the sample dress and "walk the runway" once again for my mom to see.  It should be fun! 

To my mom....allow me to be the first one to say.....Welcome to big D!  Your grandsons are waiting!

Wedding News part 4: Wedding colors

I keep landing on a great color scheme than a few things happen to that color scheme.  It's been time and time again that I've thought....'alright, I've got it this time!'.  Then a day or two goes by and I rethink things. 

Now sometimes it just me rethinking the color choices. However, most recently it's not me rethinking the choices on my own....it's availability issues.  We thought we had come up with the color scheme this past weekend.  I was completely happy!  Then last night I started looking for table linens and decor to match with the color scheme.  Well that's when things got a little tricky.  The shades of colors are sometimes not available.  The colors are available but not necessarily in the correct shade we want.  Now I'm reconsidering things once again.  Do we just go with a shade that isn't our number one choice or do we rethink the entire color palette?

Here's the other problem....I like too many colors.  Oh, I certainly have those colors that I love and are naturally more drawn to.  Overall, I'm a huge fan of numerous colors.

Oh and here is the final problem....I love sports!  I love football!  Every time we think of colors I first think to myself...."who has those colors?"....At one point I thought navy blue and gold would be an awesome choice.  But the St. Louis Rams derailed that color scheme!  As a Cardinals fan there's no way I would choose Rams colors! 

Deep down though the true issue is that it's too much fun considering all the possibilities.  Daydreaming about unique color palettes to bring my wedding to life.  I'm simply not ready to make the decision! 

A Welcome Surprise for the Boys!

My mom is coming for a visit this week.  She arrives on Thursday!  It should be fun as we have lots of things to talk about with the wedding coming up.  This will be her opportunity to see me in my wedding dress.  We will also be going to a bridal and wedding expo that is actually being hosted at the Gaylord Texan where we'll be getting married.  I know she will love to see what the Gaylord Texan looks like.   

Possibly more important than the wedding stuff at least to the pugs is that grammie will be here to see them too.  Due to us making a trip to AZ in June the boys have not seen their grammie since last September when she was here for my bday.  Now the boys are in the dark this time on the fact that grammie is about to hit town!  I have not told them anything!  I want to see their reactions when she just all of a sudden shows up. 

As far as pending arrivals by grammie the boys have only been told she'll be here in December.  And to Cody, his belief is that she's coming only for his bday, no other reason. ;) I have been careful as to what I say around the pugs too, because I want to ensure they are not anticipating grammie's visit! It will be a welcome surprise for them!

No Recipe, Recipe!

I love making casseroles!  Sometimes there's lots of steps to a casserole but the majority of the meal is all in one baking dish!  Overall it's easy-breezy! 

A few months back I was cruising through my cookbooks I have on my Nook and came across this healthy Tex-Mex casserole.  I tried it out and we both liked it enough for me to try again.  Here's how I can tell if my fiancé truly does like a dish I make....if the leftovers get eatten in the near future.  If leftovers from a certain meal sit in there until they go bad it's likely the meal was a miss-fire!  This particular casserole was eatten up within a couple days.  I remembered all the ingredients while shopping at the grocery store yesterday afternoon, no need to actaully look up the recipe until time to make dinner.

When dinner time approached I turned to my Nook for the recipe. I looked and I looked for this darn recipe.  I couldn't find it in any of my cookbooks on my Nook.  I tried numerous searches and many different key words, no such luck.  After a little encouraging from my fiancé I decided to go it alone....no recipe.  The meal turned out great, a success!  And my fiancé commented that this time around was better than the first recipe.  Now he might be saying that just to boost my confidence...but I don't mind comments like that in the least.

So fresh off last night's successful meal I have taken on a challenge!  I mean a challenge!  I'm a former Zonie!  Zonie's do not cook with a lot of Cajun spices.  Arizona does not border Louisiana! However, tonight I will attempt my first Cajun-style meal.  I will be making jambalaya!  My fiancé loves jambalaya.  Him and his dad have a fave spot they eat jambalaya at after playing tennis together.  He recently asked me if I could attempt jambalaya for him.  Normally when he has a fave spot to get a specialty type of meal at I try to stay away from cooking it at home.  Because I feel the restaurant version is going to far surpass my version.  Especially since I'm so nutrition mindful!  But he asked so I must try it for him.  Fingers-crossed it turns out well!  My jambalaya is currently simmering on the stove and smells great! 

The Engagement from the Pugs Perspective

Cody's up first:
Why, hello it is I the Cody-man!  My grammie likes to call me Cokey!  There's lots of new talks around these parts!  I hear new words being mentioned a lot.  New words like "engagement", "wedding",  "honeymoon"...I have only slight clues as to what any of those actually mean!  From what I can gather by mommie's excited and happy face all these new words must mean good things are in store.  And every time mommie has gone in to peek at her "wedding dress" in the closet I've been there by her side.  She was ecstatic when she brought her dress home last week.  Only troubling thing for me so far is when I've heard mommie and her fiancé joke about putting me in a tux. Mommie thinks I'd be a handsome little guy in a tux but I'm not sure what exactly a tux is, so I'm a little leary.  Over the years she's put me in quite a few outfits, I've managed to survive them all.  I suppose I'm willing to try a tux! I've also been told the big event happens soon after my bday.  Well as long as I continue to get walks and someone plays with me often I suppose whatever changes this "engagement" and "wedding" bring my way I can cope with it!

Simon's turn:
Oh man, what I have been put thru in recent weeks?  Pull up a chair and take some time to read this!  I have had to listen to mommie rattle on about looking at that ring on her hand.  Yes, mommie it sparkles!  I have had to listen to talk about me having Storm the cat as my sister!  I have endured chats about "wedding colors".  Oh the nightmare of the endless talks mommie has about wedding colors!  Just when it seems those talks will end they start again!  Geez!  Worse yet I have to deal with an older brother that is way too involved with what is going on in mommie's world.  You know that's all he does all day...yep it's true.  He follows her everywhere.  She can't leave the room for more than 7 seconds without him following her.  Can you say momma's boy?  As for me I'm a busy guy!  I've got a rigorous sleeping, eating, walking schedule that must not be disturbed.  Plus I'm the timekeeper of the household.  I'm the one that makes sure mommie does things for me at the appropriate time! So you see I don't have time to think about all this wedding talk!  I'm way too into what is going on in Simon's world! I'm swamped dealing with my own schedule!

August Arrives!

Welcome to August!  I like to think of August here in TX as the last of the hot months.  During the month of September the temp is still warm but not quite as warm as right now.  It's beginning to decline.  Not to mention I look so forward to Fall every year!

I'm ready for the stores to be done with their "back to school" sales and bring out the Fall items.  This is one year where I will certainly look forward to Christmas items hitting stores as early as possible!  For me this year there is no such thing as too early when it comes to getting ideas for wedding decor!

As I type this post both pugs are fast asleep in the same bed.  That doesn't happen too often during the daytime.  They usually like their own space during the day and buddy up at bedtime.  Since Cody destroyed the single pug bed though the bed that is now occupying their area is big enough for both boys. 

We have been watching plenty of Olympic coverage.  Every evening.  I don't take any time for it during the day.  I could have it on in the background as I work. However, I work a lot more efficiently without something like the Olympics going on in the background.  Oh geez, I can't stand the way they decorated the gymnastics facility.  Man, that thing will give you a headache!  Talk about going overboard on color.  I like lots of colors!  Just not liking the way they presented them in that space.  We have yet to see any tennis.  I've looked on numerous channels for the tennis, no luck.  Looking forward to tonight's broadcast. 

Well it's about time to wake the pugs to take them for their before dinner walk! I have quite a few things to do in the next 90 minutes before the Olympics begin. So I'm off to get stuff done!