Guess Where My Husband Is Tonight.....

So where is my hubby tonight?  Let's all be envious of Brad for a few moments.....the Cowboys game!  It's his first Cowboys game in the new stadium.  It's actually his first time inside the new stadium.  He has not wanted to go until he attended a game.  Well tonight is the night he finally gets to set foot inside the Jerry Dome as it's sometimes referred to locally.

Brad came home the other night telling me his staff was given 3 tickets to the Cowboys game.  He was one of the staff members offered a ticket.  But he continued to say he was unsure he wanted to go.  It's only pre-season and he was set on seeing his first game in the new stadium with his wife(me).  I instantly said, "what is there to think about?"..."it's a free ticket with a parking pass".  The biggest complaint here in Big D is the new stadium's parking so a parking pass is huge!  I think since I responded well and pretty much insisted he go tonight he was suddenly onboard. 

It's a good thing...because the next day he was told by the vendor that was giving the tickets away, they were not average tickets by any means.  The 3 tickets were to get into a field-level suite!  Can you believe it?  His work was given 3 tickets to a field-level suite!  Awesome!  Being in a suite means free food and drinks as well!  He's living it up good tonight!

Tonight as I watch the game I'll be looking at those suites directly behind the players bench.  I've seen those suites before but I was unsure if they were suites or just a bar.  I know there's also a bar near the entrance of the Cowboys locker room.  I'm excited for him!  Yes, it's just pre-season and no starters will play tonight but how often is one given a free ticket to a field-level suite at Cowboys Stadium?  It's a must-go type of thing! 

I did make him take the camera.  I hope he takes a few pics.  I'm curious to see the view he'll have from there!   Tomorrow I'll try to find time to upload any pics he takes here on the blog.

Get Home The Rain is a Coming!

As I was driving home a little while ago I looked at the sky to notice bad weather was rapidly approaching.  Get home, walk the boys, and hope it holds off til Brad gets home were the thoughts running through my head.  There's been some clouds hanging around today but up until an hour ago none of them appeared ready to do business.

Tonight I have a surprise for my husband.  I made a special trip to Best Buy to purchase his ultimate fave video game....Madden Football.  Today was release day for the new addition.  It's also the 25th anniversary of the game.  Geez, it's been going awhile now! Brad looks forward to getting each new addition when it's released every August.  For the last 3 years I've surprised him with it on release day.  So perhaps this might not be as big of a surprise as I thought, since I've done this before.  However, I doubt he's expecting it, he's not like that.  He's likely even forgotten today is it's release day.  Either way he'll be happy to see it when he walks in.  I put a bow on the game and it's strategically placed near the TV and Xbox.  I also put one of his ultimate fave meals in the crock pot early today.  I've actually never done this meal in the crock pot but it should work just fine.  I'm actually proud of myself for thinking to use the crock pot since this meal is supposed to go in the oven for a ridiculous amount of time.  It's nearly impossible for me to have time to do this meal the typical way the recipe suggests. 

You can file this next little story under....the adventures of a newly married couple!  Or a newly married bride!  I thought I was doing something good, I decided to wash our pillows.  These pillows Brad estimates he's had for 15 years.  He's tried replacing them but nothing compares. I love them too, they are super comfortable!  So low and behold I decide to wash them.  They didn't fall apart like the boys beds a few weeks ago. They came through it fine.  However, they are now very lumpy.  Well actually one is more lumpy than the other.  LOL!  The lumpiness in the pillow is hilarious.  It just makes me laugh the second I look at the one pillow.  It's crazy looking now.  The other pillow is fine, since I screwed them up I've insisted Brad use the good one!  Brad now thinks we need to try finding new pillows AGAIN but I'm set on using these ones awhile longer.  The lumpiness I can try to fix....I think!  LOL! 

Our Long Weekend!

We had a great weekend.  We started the weekend off on Friday by taking the Pathfinder in to have some extra stuff we purchased installed on it.  I didn't realize the installation process would take as long as it did. I didn't  think the Pathfinder could look any better than it already did...perhaps I was wrong.  Because now it looks unbelievably awesome!  I call it my space shuttle!  It has so many innovative features it's just like how I imagine the inside of a space shuttle being.

The US Open has begun.  That will take up our evenings for the next 2 weeks.  It's currently in a rain delay, waiting to see if Federer will be able to take the court or not.  One of my fave things about the US Open and also the Australian Open are the night matches.  I love kicking back on the couch to watch live tennis in the evenings.  With a lot of other tournaments we watch tape delayed matches because it originally aired during the day. 

The highlight of the weekend for us was having my brother-in-law and sister-in-law over on Saturday night.  Today is my brother-in-law's birthday so we wanted to invite them over to celebrate during the weekend.  I baked a cake and made dinner.  The cake I made was a mocha mousse cake.  I made the mousse the night before.  I was certain my mousse would not set up correctly so I had a back-up plan in mind just in case.  As it turned out the mousse was useable but I decided to mix it with the frosting instead of using the mousse solo as the filling.  The mousse as I said was useable but still not completely as thick as I would have liked.  Maybe next time I'll get the hang of it.  Mousse is so hard to make.  I've heard how difficult it is so this was actually my first attempt at it.  The leftover mousse Brad plans on using over ice cream.  We spent the evening watching the Cowboys play then we all played games.  Lots of fun!

I love 3 day weekends! Sometimes the weekends go by so quickly that having a 3 day weekend lets us feel like we actually had a weekend, if you know what I mean.  Getting up on Monday was still hard but a bit easier coming off a long weekend.  Brad has to work this coming Saturday because it's the 1st....darn it!  I thought he would have another long weekend thanks to Labor Day.  Instead though his weekend will be Sunday and Monday.  At least he'll get consecutive days off, that's how he's looking at it.

The Weekend Arrives!

The weekend has arrived for us!  Woo-hoo!  Finally my husband has a Friday off!  It's been a longtime coming!  The best part is...it's two 3 day weekends back to back.  Labor day weekend follows this weekend!

I have been so extremely BUSY!  Regular busy doesn't begin to explain the type of BUSY I've been today.  I tried hard to do extra all week long so I could have Friday off too!  By the time today arrived though I still had a ton to do.  I got up this morning set on combining 2 days into 1.  Everything I normally do on Thursday and Friday all got done today!  Wow!  It was tough!  I had only a 20 minute break during the day and I barely stopped working when my husband briefly arrived home to get ready for his tennis night.

I was finally done with all I needed to accomplish by 8:00 pm.  Not too bad!  Since finishing I've been watching my fave shows.  I had some football on briefly, I guess the teams just weren't interesting enough to me so on to cooking shows I went. I did get a little bored at one point so for some strange reason I got up to do some laundry.  Now I have laundry done for the coming week.

In other news, we're back to being a two vehicle family again!  Brad's car is back and looking great!  He had the battery in the car replaced while it was in the shop.  Get this, that battery wasn't actually in the danger zone yet but it's a little more than 4 years old.  Can you believe that?  Not in AZ....there's no way a car battery would last that long in AZ.  I couldn't believe it when he told me he'd never replaced the battery in the car.  When I lived in AZ I think I averaged about 2 to 2 and a half years with my vehicles.  Is it the heat that kills the battery in AZ or was I just buying low quality batteries? Who knows!

As I've been typing this my Cody-man has accomplished getting a squeaker out of a toy.  The toy is now a done deal. Cody is super proud of himself.  He's parading around with the squeaker in his mouth. He's so funny!  He doesn't actually destroy toys they just naturally wear out as he roughs them up frequently.  When he does manage to get a squeaker out he expects recognition of it! Off to acknowledge his shining accomplishment I must go!

The Sunday Brush Off!

We had a great Sunday.  Relaxed and got some stuff done that made my Monday a little easier.  Which has been a good thing.  Such a good thing that I was able to make jambalaya for dinner. Jambalaya is a little time consuming but worth it.  What a nice treat it will be for Brad when he gets home, the wonderful jambalaya aroma will instantly hit him as he walks through the door.  His Monday's are super stressful, healthy comfort food for Monday dinner's is something I work hard to accomplish.

As for yesterday, we watched tennis and some football, plus as I mentioned previously I made my first ever batch of blueberry pancakes.  I also got in the kitchen late in the afternoon to whip up an easy dessert.  The reason I felt the need to make a dessert was because a longtime friend of mine was arriving in town. I wanted to be ready to serve dessert in case they came over after the planned dinner we were to have.  She and her boyfriend flew into Dallas to return his daughter for the start of the upcoming school year. They were only going to be here for one night.  Three weeks ago when their trip was first scheduled she contacted me.  I gave her all the info a person needs when scheduling a visit to big D.  I even looked up hotel prices for her.  They decided on a hotel that was a half mile away from our place.  Super close to us.  Knowing they would be quite busy during the day we planned on a simple dinner for the 4 of us.  We were going to take them to a fave pizza café of ours. 

Soon after they arrived to town my friend gave me updates as to their plans for the day. They flew into Dallas but they had to rent a car then drive the youngster 2 hours north of Dallas.  After they dropped off his daughter they would return to Dallas to stay the night at a hotel literally around the corner from us. It was quite clear early on that dinner was going to be a late one if it was still a go.  I remained hopeful!  As our typical dinner hour approached they now wanted steak and they weren't willing to wait until they arrived back in Dallas.  They asked if we could meet them tomorrow morning instead.  Umm, no...it's a Monday....a work day!  Now I can be understanding, I realized they were running late with their day.  In an effort to change up the plans yet still get together, I  suggested dessert! Since I had made the dessert already I said go do your own thing, we'll do our own thing then come by around 10:00 or 10:30 for a late dessert or just come by to see us.  We stay up late, no concern of disturbing us any if they came by late.  I could tell that was not a go but silly me I kept a slight bit of hope alive for awhile.  She then cut me off by never responding to dessert plans  once 9:45 hit.  Her last text was how yummy their steak dinner was and that she wasn't optimistic to see us.

When this morning rolled around I had a moment of reflection on the events of last evening. I quickly thought to myself, 'boy am I glad I married the type of man I married'.  He's not a flake! When he makes plans with people he keeps them.  He values other peoples time! He values his word and his commitments!  Thank goodness!  Early on in our dating relationship Brad had a couple chances to cancel plans with me after his cousin would invite him to do other things.  He never once cancelled on me!  I remember being impressed by that especially since at the time we had only been seeing each other for a short amount of time.

My friend has since texted me to say sorry for not getting together.  I said it was okay and was understanding.  However, it's a bit difficult to take in the fact that a friend of mine would come to Dallas, stay a mere half mile away from where I live, make plans with us, then brush us off in the manner we were brushed off.  They are coming back in December to pick the daughter up for the holidays. My friend let me know "it's a date in December"!  Oh well, things happen.  It didn't ruin our evening any.  We ordered in pizza then watched an awesome movie while eating the dessert I made. We highly recommend the new G.I. Joe movie with the Rock and Bruce Willis.  Lots of action and a good storyline! 

From Seafood to Pancakes!

Since Brad came into my life my palette has experienced plenty of new flavors.  From lobster to crab to Cajun food to who knows what else he's convinced me to try.  I remember one time he surprised me by taking me to the restaurant Benihana.  I'd never heard of Benihana before.  I immediately figured out it was mostly known for seafood.  I was a little scared!  I soon realized seafood wasn't anything to be scared of.  Just give it a fair chance.  I now fix salmon regularly and even jambalaya. 

The other night I laid awake thinking up recipes for salmon.  Weird!  I had a great idea for stuffed salmon.  If only I can figure out the easiest way to stuff it.  Cut a slit in it and stuff it inside or roll it up around the stuffing mixture I make.  At our wedding one of the entrees we had was salmon roulade...which is basically a stuffed salmon.  It was an addition only a week before our wedding date because I know how much my groom loves salmon.  The salmon got rave reviews from the groom's side!

It's kind of funny how your taste buds change as you mature.  Just this morning for brunch I made blueberry pancakes.  I love experimenting with different types of pancakes but blueberries are not my thing.  This was my first blueberry pancake experience.  Before today I had only had one bite of Brad's blueberry pancakes at a restaurant quite a few months ago.  I'm not opposed to blueberries, I like blueberry muffins but they aren't a fave fruit of mine for some reason.  However, just this past week I caught an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay in which he challenged a master blueberry pancake chef.  Upon watching the episode I decided I needed to try some blueberry pancakes.  While grocery shopping this morning I picked up some fresh blueberries. Upon returning home to prepare brunch I told Brad blueberry pancakes were on the menu!  He loves blueberry pancakes so he didn't try to talk me out of it!  I liked them a lot! 

My two absolute fave pancake types to prepare us for Sunday brunch are chocolate chip and banana.  I think banana pancakes are my ultimate faves! But not in restaurants! Only at home. Most restaurants charge so much extra for fruit pancakes and all they do is slice up some fruit and throw it on top.  That's a cop out!  I like my fruit and complimentary seasonings mixed into the batter.  Anyway the blueberry pancakes could possibly be my third fave pancake.  Not sure though if I should bump plain pancakes to the fourth spot or not!  Maybe plain and blueberry pancakes can be tied at the 3rd spot! LOL!

This is quite the food post...from seafood to Cajun food to pancakes!  Interesting! 

A Thief Among Us!...A pug tale!

Quite a few months ago I planted a small tomato plant in a pot on our balcony.  It has grown to be a rather sizeable plant.  I'm starting to think I might need to transfer it to a bigger pot.  It's fun to take care of it and watch it grow!  I get so excited to watch the tomatoes change colors as they ripen.

Well a few weeks ago I was picking some tomatoes off the vines.  I laid the tomatoes down next to me as I continued to take care of the plant.  When I turned around to gather the tomatoes they weren't there.  I looked over towards the opposite end of the balcony where my boys laid in their large bed next to each other.  Cody wasn't paying attention to me at all.  He was chillin'. Simon was looking right at me.  I then asked Simon directly, "did you eat the tomatoes?". Upon my question I couldn't believe what he did.  He diverted both of his eyes to the far right.  As if he was suddenly hoping by not making eye contact with me I would then glance over him and possibly assume Cody to be the thief.  Even with his eyes completely diverted I could see the thoughts running through his head as he tried to stay still and avoid eye contact at all cost. He was trying his best to make his body language read, "Tomatoes?  What tomatoes? I'm chillin', I didn't see any tomatoes." 

What a little stinker!  I know he ate those tomatoes.  The guilt was written all over him.  I have to add though, it was funny.  I've never seen a dog divert his eyes to the far right in the way Simon did when directly questioned. 

Now skip ahead to this week, I've been watching a few tomatoes waiting for them to get ripe enough.  I went out there one day and no tomatoes.  I don't know for sure Simon ate them but it had to be him.  In the last few weeks he's become increasingly fascinated with going on the balcony.  When we decide to let him out there the first thing he does is visit the plant.  Since my plant is becoming a victim of Simon's thievery ways the plant will get moved up to our balcony table next time it has tomatoes on it's vines. 

We can tell there's a lot of tomatoes coming.  They seem to come in waves.  A large wave then a small wave then it's time to wait for the next big wave. We're currently waiting for the big wave since Simon ate the small wave of tomatoes.  Geez!  A little tiny tomato thief lives among us! 

Who Am I?

The other day while cruising around online looking at random stuff.  I came across this article that described certain dog breeds.  In the article they were breaking down the most social breeds.  I knew pug would be listed, sure enough it was.  Below is the description of the pug:

The Pug:  Everybody's buddy

Don't let his frowny face mislead you. The extroverted and charming Pug is crazy about people - kids and adults alike. Completely focused on humans, Pugs will follow family members from room to room. Don't be surprised if they are equally happy to make friends with complete strangers.

Now after reading this I immediately thought specifically about one of my pug's.  Which one popped into my head?  This description of a pug describes one of my boys perfectly, not leaving anything out!  Who is he?  Cody-man!  Cody is the typical stereotype pug!  There is nothing in that description that isn't true about my Cody-man. I was so struck by this perfect description I immediately read it to Brad. I read it to him by turning it into a "who am I" guessing game.   

Great Weather, Sports Watching, and Girls Night!

We've had great weather this week!  Unbelievable!  Quite a bit of rain and non hot temps have been a daily treat.  Our high yesterday and today was 85 degrees.  This morning featured a cool breeze and threatened to rain on us the whole way during the long walk.  It seems each August features a day or two of an Autumn preview!  Just a slight taste that tells us to simply hold on, the hotness will be done for the year soon.  I'm sure the temps will climb back up to the norm for this time of year very soon.

 It's another shortened weekend for Brad.  He has to work tomorrow.  I'll be so glad when all the vacations are over at his work.  Due to people taking their vacations he's had to work extra.  He's worked more than his usual one Saturday a month. I'll be doing my best to keep busy tomorrow while watching the hours until he comes home pass by ever so slowly.  During the week I'm used to his work schedule and my own schedule but when the weekend comes that's our time.  It definitely feels different to have to go through a Saturday without him being home. I miss him! 

We've been watching plenty of tennis.  We're currently watching Federer and Nadal battle it out.  An American player, Isner beat the #1 men's tennis player in the world today.  Awesome!  Maybe America's got a new up and comer to battle some of the elite players in tennis. 

I haven't yet pointed out to Brad the Cowboys vs. Cardinals game tomorrow starts while he's at work.  By the time he gets home the game will likely be starting the 4th quarter.  He's not going to be a happy camper, I'm not happy about it either.  When it's pre-season the first half is usually the better half to watch.  Since it's a game that features our two fave teams we are more interested in it than most pre-season football.  Although we watch a fair amount of the pre-season no matter what.  And so far we've watched both Cowboys pre-season games from beginning to end.  I was assuming tomorrow's game was an evening game until my mom pointed out different.

Last night while Brad and his dad plus two friends went to play tennis, my mother-in-law and I did our own thing. It was girl's night!  She came over to our place since Brad and I are still sharing one car. Her and I can just talk and talk, we don't need TV or any other form of entertainment.  We laugh a lot as we get lost in conversation.  I made us dinner instead of going out.  For dessert I made her try gelato.  If you haven't had gelato you must try it!  There's some gelato shops around town and in malls but to our surprise we found gelato in the grocery store recently.  It's amazing!  For those that aren't familiar with gelato it's the Italian version of ice cream.  In my opinion the flavor seems to be more intense and it's creamier than American ice cream.  It's a special indulgence to me!

We've had so much noisy rainy nights lately I'm lacking sleep.  Weird how the noisy rain can keep me up sometimes.  This weekend I need to catch up on sleep. We both need to!  We've had some late nights too.   

A New Cooking Experience

Last night we had some friends over for dinner.  Usually I look forward to making some super delicious food for get-togethers such as last night's.  When we invite company over we indulge a bit with the foods that we offer.  The meal I make for company coming over is never the type of meal I serve up during the week.  I don't worry about it being a healthy meal per say, because it's a special time to come together and simply enjoy good company and yummy food.  We typically eat quite healthy in our household.  Not as healthy as we probably could but still I am mindful of healthy versus unhealthy.  For myself I try hard to make healthy meals during the week and then eat whatever I want on the weekend.  That seems to be a good balance for me.  So as health conscience as I am there are other people in this world that are much more health conscience than myself.  Our dinner guests last night fall into the latter category.

The wife in the couple has to be concerned about the foods she eats because she has a super serious digestive disease.  This was my first time ever cooking for someone with a digestive disease.  I happily accepted the challenge for cooking for the 4 of us early in the week.  I did research on my own.  Planned out a meal for Saturday night.  As I was grocery shopping yesterday we finally got the actual "food list" from our friend.  That's when I got more nervous.  Seeing the food list of things she can eat was so limited.  One of my planned dishes had to be scrapped.   We soon made a repeat trip to the grocery store to make sure we had enough to offer her for dinner.

I'll admit when it came time to start the meal I was a little, shall I say, uninspired.  It was quite different than how I would usually cook for company.  I would usually do so much more than what I was actually having to do.  So in a way it was kind of nice.  In another way it was completely worrisome because I didn't want to mess up and do something that was going to make her sick for the evening. 

Everything I used had to organic.  That part wasn't hard for me.  The hardest part was seasoning.  She can't have any type of seasonings or marinades.  Everything I made had to be "naked".  I'm so used to marinades and seasonings.  I'm quite big on marinated meat!  I had to use my brain a lot to figure out ways to infuse some flavor in these dishes without using my go-to seasonings or marinades. I was pleasantly surprised the meal turned out great.  Whew! 

It was a wonderful experience to cook in that manner too.  It was different from what we normally do.  We do things healthy.  Whereas this was doing things in an "ultra healthy" manner. I roasted a naked organic chicken and baked some salmon.  Because I wanted her to have an option of meat.  Both Brad and I agree we need a marinade on salmon to truly enjoy it.  As for the chicken, I will roast another chicken exactly like that in the future for us.  It turned out well enough to repeat on a regular basis.  I did find ways to infuse flavor in the chicken because I stuffed it with organic products plus I cooked those same organic products nestled around it. We also had 3 side dishes to offer.  Two of which she could enjoy and one that would please my husband! 

All in all the evening meal went very well! I must say though it is a different type of pressure cooking for someone that has a digestive disease.  Cooking for people that can enjoy any foods has a small amount of pressure.  Simply because you want people to like what you cooked. Plus you want everything to get done correctly and at the correct time.  That's the usual pressure I feel when making a big meal for company.  This was the first time I've had added concerns based on someone's dietary requirements.  It was quite an experience and one that I will gladly repeat next time we invite these friends over.      

Finally it's Friday!

Finally Friday arrived!  Was it just me or was this a truly long week?  It went by at turtle speed.

We're currently sitting here watching the Cowboys game.  We've been kicking back, watching sports this evening.  Bouncing between tennis and football.  Before the Cowboys game started we watched the Nadal match, as there's a big tennis tourney going on in Canada until Sunday.  We'll be tuning into that plenty this weekend.  Pre-season football and tennis....is there a better sports combo?

We had a thunderstorm at dinnertime that caught us off guard.  We looked around at each other as we were in disbelief as to whether or not we were indeed hearing thunder.  I went out on the balcony to move my tomato plant out to the edge so it would get some rain water, Simon accompanied me.  Cody stayed inside....surprise, surprise! Cody's a bit grumpy tonight. Even before the rainstorm started he was in a grumpy mood.  His crankiness started when Simon ran into Cody while he was eating, Cody's food then went flying.  We heard the issue starting to erupt between the boys by the time we arrived on the scene Cody's food was everywhere. Cody ate his dinner kibble by kibble as Brad and I picked them up then placed them back in his bowl.  Soon after dinner Simon purposefully tipped the toy box over. Toys are still all around. Needless to say, Simon is not rating very high in Cody's opinion tonight!  

Let's see, what else is going on?  We're down to one vehicle again.  As we are sharing the Pathfinder this time around.  Brad's had some things on his car needing attention. Nothing major, we finally decided it was time though to get his car issues taken care of.  The main issue is the front bumper.  A watermelon fell off a truck in front of him some time ago.  As a result the watermelon caused some damage to the underneath section of the front bumper. You couldn't see the damage looking at his car but you could hear the bumper was too low and dragging at times. He temporarily fixed it. The temporary fix however, was no longer working.  Therefore it was time to get it fixed completely.  Hopefully, it won't take too long to get it back.  He's having some other upgrades done to it as well.  By the time it's done I think it's going to look practically new.  He'll be so happy too! He loves his blue sports car!    

So glad it's the weekend!  Time to stay up late and enjoy ourselves!  And make a yummy breakfast in the morning. During the week it's all about breakfast on the go! That's why on the weekends I look forward to actually getting in the kitchen to make breakfast. At least once during most weekends I make either pancakes or French toast. Stuffed French toast sure does sound yummy, peanut butter and jelly stuffed French toast!

My Quest for Clean Dog Beds

Oh my!  I have mentioned many times that one of Cody's not so good qualities is that he likes to rough up his bed, his toys, and his blanket.  It's his way he greets the morning.  He's the reason we go through so many dog beds in this house.  I must say though, Cody has been doing much better lately, he's been focusing on roughing up an old blanket instead of his bed.  Now one thing most people know about me is....I like things to be clean.  I like a clean house, clean pugs, and clean pug stuff.  Sometimes I think the boys have nearly as much laundry as we do!  Lol!  That's obviously an exaggeration, but in the winter time when they wear clothes too it can seem that way.

In total the boys have 4 beds.  Two beds for each boy! Two beds for lounging in the living room during the day.  Plus 2 different beds they sleep in at night.  I noticed today when getting the boys up their beds needed to visit the laundry soon.  Late in the day I had the time to wash them.  After putting them in the washer I returned to get them out.  When I lifted up the washer lid I couldn't believe my eyes.  The washer was filled with stuffing!  Stuffing everywhere!  It was like I was stuck in a Build-A-Bear factory.  I pulled out the first bed to discover the entire front section had ripped open and spilled it's stuffing everywhere.  I pulled out the second bed, it was ripped too, not as massively as the first one. 

The beds are a done deal!  The washer massacred them!  I learned my lesson, gentle cycle from now on.  This was a first for me, never had this happen before.  I've also never used the gentle cycle in the many years I've washed the pug's beds.  This time the beds need to be replaced and it's not at all Cody's fault!  My quest for clean dog beds now means we need new dog beds! 

Pug Stuff!

This is a menial post. An almost about nothing post.  Yet I'm still going to make this post!

I was just now cruising around online when I came across a video of a pug watching TV.  The video was obviously done by the owner of the pug.  Yes, the pug was super hilarious as he was completely fixated on the TV.  He even had reactions to certain scenes.  He barked and spun around in excitement.  Oh the pug spin!  Pugs do that weird fast spinning motion. As if they are chasing their tail.  In our household Cody does the spinning move more frequently than Simon!

What struck me most about this particular pug video I stumbled across online?  The things in the household of this pug's pad!  Pug figurines and a pug shaped pillow.  It looked like our house, in a way!  We have pug coasters, a pug luggage tag, pug figurines, and a few stuffed pugs.  One stuffed pug sits on the bed in the guest room.  I mustn't forget to mention the pug statue that we also have near our front entryway.

What is it about pugs that make their owners decorate in pug memorabilia?  Not that we've gone overboard with the pug stuff in our home but we have key items on display to go with the REAL pugs running around the place.  Maybe other dog breed owners do the same?  A beagle owner decorates with some beagle figurines and a poodle owner decorates with poodle figurines.  I'm not sure but I'm thinking pug owners might be a little more nutty about their preferred breed then other dog owners!  LOL! 

August Means Pre-Season Football!

August here in Texas has begun with it's usual steamy hotness! I'm not fond of the month of August.  I'm usually anxious for it to go by so we can get into September.  I always look forward to September!

However, the best part of August means football season is on the horizon.  Tonight the Cowboys kick-off the pre-season against the Dolphins in the Hall of Fame game.  Yes, we'll be watching!  My husband's already got his Cowboys shirt on!  Oh and so do I!

I told Brad the other day the Cowboys are predicted by numerous experts to be GOOD this season.  Play-off spot good!  He's skeptical!  Hopeful, yet skeptical!  He's been quite disappointed in the last few seasons so he needs to see it before he's ready to believe in the hype!  As for my Cardinals, well....I've got my fingers crossed!  I start every season off being hopeful!  They have some new pieces to the puzzle.  It'll be interesting to see how Palmer will do.  His career hasn't been going well since leaving Cincinnati but maybe a fresh start will do him some good.  I know my team has been struggling since Warner left, therefore, I'll consider it a step in the right direction if they can at least make a slight push for the play-offs.  More wins then losses...please!

My Busy Saturday

Saturday's aren't normally what I would classify "busy".  We might have stuff going on but it's much more casual with an emphasis on relaxing since it's the weekend.  But yesterday was a work day for Brad.  As I've mentioned before, he works one Saturday per month in exchange for an off day during the week. 

I'm a bit like a lost puppy dog on Saturday's that Brad has to work.  I've tried staying around the house on those Saturday's hoping time will fly by. I've also tried being somewhat busy.  No matter what the time creeps by ever so slowly as I wait for him to get home so we can start our weekend. 

Yesterday I did as much as I could during the course of the day.  I decided to do our grocery shopping a couple days early.  I then ran an errand especially for my husband.  I took Brad and his co-worker lunch.  I went to get a special surprise for Brad, which he was delighted to see once he got home.  I did some laundry. I even went to get the car washed.  After all that I came home to do a little baking and start dinner.  The day overall still went slowly!

We had an enjoyable evening as Brad's brother and sister-in-law came over.  We had fun relaxing, chatting, and playing games.  They were also interested in seeing all our London and Paris memorabilia.  I got out the London newspapers.  We got the local paper announcing the royal birth.  My brother-in-law was quite intrigued as he started to read through the paper.  He probably read more than I have of that paper.  I simply got it for the historic significance!

Busy day capped off by a fun evening! Brad is currently at work again as I type this.  It's the hectic time of the month for him.  I'm always happy when it gets past the first few days of the month.  And I prefer for the first few days of the month to occur during the work week as opposed to on the weekend.  That way he gets the busyness out of the way before his actual weekend begins.