Musings from Squatchee Mountain

Busy foodie weekend

I think Rob's suffered a head injury.  Saturday, we got up, went to the dog park, and eventually settled on Mellow Mushroom for lunch.  We almost went to Boneheads but I wasn't sure there was anything there I'd like and was worried about some of the unidentifiable spices b/c the last thing I wanted was to spend the weekend with a food allergy problem.  Mellow Mushroom was great, as usual, but next time we are going to just get one calzone and have them put all the pepperonies on his side.  We have half of each of our calzones in the fridge for leftovers.

Then we drove through a few cute neighborhoods on the way back to the apartment.  There were some really cute houses that would put him about 10 min from work, but our focus right now is to get rid of our debt so we can have a downpayment for a house and not struggle as much as we did last time.  We'd like a newish house built in the last few years so we don't have much to change, but that costs more in most cases than an older house initially.

We stopped at a Publix shopping center so Rob could use the facilities, and I went into Dots.  I found a skirt for $3.00 and a dress for $20.  It was kind of creepy b/c everything was so inexpensive, but I'm glad I went in.  Rob tried to get me to get these crazy shoes but I declined.  I usually just buy one pair of shoes for each season and wear them until they fall apart.  I'm sure my mom is saying, "WHO SWITCHED MY CHILD AT BIRTH?" reading that statement.

Then he offered to go to Harry's (Whole Foods).  Um.  What did you do with my husband?  Usually, I have to drag him kicking and screaming to any grocery store, much less the Hippie Grocery Store.  I sat quietly in the car and kept waiting for him to come to his senses, but we went in!  He was really sweet and looked at all the crazy fruits and vegetables with me.  I got a baby watermelon, 2 apples with organic caramel dip, 2 baking potatoes and a bag of little baby "butter potatoes" that I'm not sure what to do with but they look tasty.  We got carrots and celery and baby cucumbers, too.  Then we wandered around and picked up a few more things - Rob loves the candy section b/c they have have his 2 favorite imported candy bars.  We also got some grind it right there peanut butter with chocolate chips for Rob (it looked like dog poo but tastes really good).  Then we went by the fish section and one of the workers was cooking and it smelled really yummy.  We went over and tried some and it was great - Rob liked it, too, which is really surprising b/c it is fish.  We got the ingredients (flounder (no skin) and an orange) and took that home with a few other odds and ends.  I found 2 Mo's Bacon Bars for Rob again so he has one to eat and one to show my mom on Thanksgiving.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing, watching TV and playing on the computer, which is pretty much what makes us both happy, so that's lucky.  Sunday, we got up and really needed to go to the grocery store for regular stuff.  Rob wasn't feeling well, so I didn't want to go to the dog park even though the pups really did think otherwise.  We got in the car and Rob said, "Do you want to go to Aldi?"  Again, I looked at him like he'd lost his mind, but took him up on his offer.  I had a list of stuff that would last 2 full weeks of breakfast/lunch/dinner and Aldi is pretty small, so it is often hard to find everything.  We got there and it wasn't crowded at all which was really nice.  We found everything except Coke, Shake 'n' Bake and turkey sausage!  It was shocking and we got out of there for $100.  You can't use coupons b/c they don't often have brand name food which is why it is cheaper.  We drove through a bunch of communities with newish houses on the way home and found one with a great lake (even has fish) but the houses are in the $200k-$250k range, which is far more than we'd ever want to spend.  There is a house in one of our favorite developments, nearly within walking distance of the dog park, that is a foreclosure for $150k, but most in the others are around $200k so we'll just have to see what is available when we are ready to buy a house again in a few years. 

We came home, watched NASCAR and NFL football and played a long but fun game of Civilization 4 - Beyond the Sword.  We are up to 1868 and I have genetics.  Surprisingly, Rob hasn't started beating up all the people on his continent, and I'm working on culturing out my neighbor.  Finally got around to making the flounder at 9:30PM (time just gets away from you playing CIV) and it was surprisingly tasty.  I think we were too efficient with the orange but other than that it was really good.  Went to bed a bit late, but I start my official 4P-1A EST Tue-Sat schedule this week so I need to get used to it.  It was a really great weekend, and I'm such a lucky girl to have Rob!

Saturday @ The Dog Park

We try to go every weekend to the Swift-Cantrell dog park in Kennesaw, GA.  It is about 10 minutes from the house and very well maintained.  We got there before noon on Saturday, and it was not that busy.  There were some very cute dogs, including a chubby white Chihuahua named Boone.  She decided pretty quickly that she was the boss of me, ran over, climbed in my lap and then barked and snarled at every other dog that came to see me, including Willow!  We also saw 3 Basenjis and they were very cute and reserved, just like Sparky back in Euless.  One kept trying to make Basenji-Inus with Willow but she put a stop to that pretty quickly.  Bart ran around as usual and barked at the dogs in the big dog area, broke up skirmishes and played sherrif.  Matteo was the star of the show as always, playing and running and fetching and kissing everyone.

 

Weird weekend

This has been a very strange week.  Still waiting on the official announcement regarding a position I applied for at work but that should all be sorted out in the morning.  Work was a bit like getting tired while treading water last week, between my Care training class as a student every day from 3P-11P, a new employee orientation on Monday as a facilitator, working on the revisions to our program flex trainer guides and interviewing/waiting for a decision on another position within the program.  I'm finally done the daily guides and nearly done the master guide, so that's  relief.  I really need to be finishing up the master guide, but I'm converting it from Microsoft Word to Microsoft Excel and the old guide is barely a skeleton for the needed revision.  I decided to take a break tonight and watch various sports on Tivo/TV.

Sports:  NASCAR race @ Talladega - Not sure the revisions to the restrictor plate made a damn bit of difference and definitely made it a more boring race.  Glad Ryan Newman and Mark Martin are okay.  Glad I don't drive a stock car b/c all you'd hear is me screaming.  Vikings @ Green Bay - Sure didn't think Favre would be booed as energetically as he was, but glad his new team won.  Couldn't believe the tasteless head butt in the first quarter.  I feel myself creeping back on the Favre bandwagon and wish I wasn't.  He's hard to hate.  World Series - fucking Yankees.

Friday I was miserable with a full-blown migraine (first one I've had in a few months), vomiting and painpainpain.  Dragged myself up to work for a little while, got a great work-related phone call which changed my plans for the coming week, and shuffled like a zombie back into the living room.  I put a sheet on the sofa and tried to sleep there so I could listen to television instead of lying in our uncomfortable bed, but Bart and Monster wanted to make sure I was okay, clearly, by suffocating me.  Then Matteo alternated between crying b/c I wouldn't play Tugs-Of-War with him or climbing inside the back of my frickin' pj's to sleep.  After an hour, I gave up and went back into the bedroom with everyone where my only distractions other than increased back and side pain from the stupid mattress was incessant gnawing from underneath the bed by Matteo.  He likes to lie on his back and chew on the bed frame.  Thanks.  I got up a bit later to do some more work stuff but basically slept the entire day off and on until Rob got home at 7:30PM.  He made me get up and eat/drink and I felt a bit better, but by 3AM when he was completely exhausted, I was wide awake.  I tried to sleep, watching Cats & Dogs on the bedside DVD player but that didn't help so I got up, took a bath and then did chores and work stuff until 10:30AM.  Got back in bed as Rob was getting up, but forced myself to get back up at 2:30PM so I could possibly get some sleep Saturday night.

Saturday we went to a new restaurant, Pirate Cove, for linner (lunch/dinner) and it was decent but no great.  Then we drove down to IKEA b/c we were looking for a futon or convertible small sofa > bed for the office.  Rob gets sad that he has to go to the bedroom when I'm still working but he really needs to get more than 5 hours/night so we have to find an alternative since my schedule will switch to Tue - Sat, 4P-1A EST once I'm trained.  Couldn't find a reasonable piece of furniture, but I did find 2 cute side tablesto put next to the sofa arms, some plastic containers for food and a thing to use to make a birthday preset for my mom.  Got home and poor Matteo had peed in his crate so I had to wash all the bedding.  Poor thing.  We were only gone for about 4-5 hours, but I guess he'd not emptied his bladder effectively on our walk prior to being crated.  Then we played some Guild Wars with Jason and Linda so we could get the Halloween hats/items.  I started feeling the migraine coming back, so I quickly went to bed at about 2AM.  The only problem was that our downstairs neighbor was having a party and his stereo was so loud it was thumping the bed.  I put headphones on to watch a DVD and eventually fell asleep.

This morning we got up and it was pretty chilly, so we walked the pups and came back in pretty quickly.  We putzed around (I cleaned stuff/finished laundry while Rob killed invaded various countries on his computer) and then at 4PM we went to Melting Pot!  I'd purchased 2 gift cards for the restaurant before Jason and Linda came out, hoping we could take advantage of $50 GC for $20 but they never got here in time so now we have to use them both before Dec 1st.  We had the usual, it was tasty and we managed to get out of there for $25+tip.  Shocking. 

We then went into Joann Fabrics (finally found it, Linda - right BEHIND the Melting Pot) and I got super excited b/c it isn't just fabric - it is crafty stuff and holiday stuff and gosh everything!  I told Rob how I remember button shopping with my mom when I was little and she made my clothes, so we wandered the buttons and found polar bear buttons.  Then we went and looked at fabric and found some flannel polar bear fabric.  I bought 1 yard and a bed pillow and I'm going to make a dog bed for the pups since they've nearly destroyed the one they have.  I'm going to make it as a pillow case b/c Matteo likes to sleep inside the bed liner.  I was going to sew it by hand, but the lady who cut the fabric told me I was crazy and suggested we could find a sewing machine for $30, so we shopped a little more and went to Target to find a cheap machine.  We found one that only does straight stitch, backwards and forwards, with an auto-bobbin making feature thing so that's fine.  If I decided to make things and find it fun I'll invest in a better machine but for now, this is great!  Once I'm done the dog bed to refresh my memory, I'm going to do the project for the deck - I'm going to make sailcloth panels to keep the dogs from looking through the railing and barking at everyone and everything.  I'm going to sew the panels around the edge to keep them from fraying when I wash them, and then use a grommet tool along the tops and bottoms - then I can tie them to the rails on the top and bottom and have it securely attached.  Shouldn't be that hard at all and I'm excited about it b/c I love leaving the deck door open and can't for more than an hour b/c they are so annoying.

Came home, watched the Tivo'd NFL game, then the Tivo'd Extreme Makeover Home Edition and now the 9th inning of the World Series.  Fucking Yankees.

Priceless

10/27/09

Listless, crying, grunting, wheezing, limp, 103.6 fevered Matteo

• Office Visit/Exam $ 43.20
• Digital Imaging 2 views $130.00
• Polyflex Injection $ 28.30
• Hazardous Waste Disposal $ 2.85
• SQ Fluid $ 28.00
• Royal Canin Recovery RS canned food  $   3.84

Night lying awake watching him pant and melt, no sleep, constant worrying.

10/28/09

Worse Matteo, screaming and biting when you try to move him.

• Recheck Exam $ 28.60
• CBC & Serum profile $120.00
• Metacam 15ml $ 29.85
• Clavamox Liquid 15ml $ 49.98
• Metacam Injection $ 28.00
• Hazardous Waste Disposal $ 2.85
• Royal Canin Recovery RS canned food  $   7.68

Happy, tail wagging, eating, drinking, pooping, peeing, barking, stealing stuff off my desk and tearing it up.

   Priceless.

New Pup Pictures

Rob was sleepy and the pups were very interested in what was outside in the apartment complex, so it turned into Hop on Pop x3.  Matteo sometimes gets very sweet and snuggly.  This time, it was while sitting with Rob.  I've never met a dog that actually whines and cries when he needs a nap.  When he's particularly fussy, if you get his dog bed and "pinker" (pink blanket from Brookstone) he falls right asleep.

 

Matteo and Bart spend a lot of time with me in the office while I'm working during the day/evening.  Willow usually sits on the sofa, leaning against the arm like a little person, but they sit with me, usually on their dog bed.  Matteo sleeps inside it, and Bart on top of it, often cuddled together through the fabric with a blanket covering the whole thing.

 

Rob brought home a stuffed Panda from Panda Express for me the other night when he went there to pick up dinner for himself on the way home (I had Subway).  Matteo fell in love with it immediately, and fights broke out.  Rob ended up getting 2 more the next time he stopped at the restaurant.  Now everyone has their own Panda!  Well, Willow and BART have their own, but Matteo eviscerated his last night.  Poor Pandy.