Home Sweet Home

Well I am home from Boston and I made it back in one piece…well a pretty tired piece that is. Since I was there for such a short period of time I never adjusted to the three hour time difference, plus I went out every night I was there and stayed up Pretty late and had to get up pretty early every morning. I am hoping to get to bed early tonight to catch up on some sleep. If you have never been to Boston it is a pretty cool city and I would recommend you visit. It is such an old city that it has a lot of history. The buildings were so old and it was neat to see Brownstone’s for homes since that is not something I am use to. The roadways were pretty tiny which made me realize I could never drive in that city. If I ever did I would be an insurance companies dream because they would make a lot of money off of me. I was able to see the popular Newbury street which has all the great shops and a few restaurants. I went to the North End two nights in a row with a group of people for dinner and drinks. The North End is like a Little Italy. There are a ton of Italian restaurants and bakeries there. It was just a neat area to even walk around as it kind of looked fake…like a movie set. Let me tell you the cobblestone streets made it very difficult to walk in heels. I didn’t know everything was in cobblestone or I wouldn’t have gone out in heels. Don’t worry I was a trooper and managed to get by…I just walked a little slower than everyone else. By the way everyone walks there. It’s great! If I lived there I wouldn’t even own a car as I would either walk or use the subway system. The food was absolutely amazing at this restaurant we ate at last night called Pezza. If you are ever in Boston I would highly recommend it. Pezza is a really nice Italian restaurant. I got the halibut and it was amazing. Probably one of the best dishes I have ever had. The locals would crack me up with their thick accents. I am not use to that around Phoenix. I would have to say that my short trip to Boston was pretty cool and I had a GREAT time. I am glad to be home though where it’s 93 degrees outside.

Going to Boston

This weekend is going to be spent in Boston working. Yup, I am going to spend all day Saturday flying across country for a two day conference and then spend another day flying all the way back to AZ while Andy spends a relaxing weekend with the dogs. I have a problem with this. I do not like to fly so if I am going to get on a plane I like to make it worth it. I will be in Boston for two days only which is also equivalent to the amount of time I will be flying, so for some reason to me that doesn’t sound like it’s worth it. Plus, I get antsy, so to be on a plane for five hours is not my cup of tea. I can typically do three hours without going crazy, but in past experiences I know that anything over three is rough on me. I tend to get really bored, so I will be packing my portable DVD player, a book and my mp3 player to help keep me occupied for the long flight. Also, not to mention the three hour time change, but I won’t go into that. I would love to see Boston, but I don’t have much time for that as it seems as if I will be holed up in my hotel most of the time filling my two days full of fun at a conference on accounting marketing. That might be a good thing because I checked the weather report and it says a high of 50 degrees with a low of 40. Uhmmm…sounds pretty cold to me, so I packed plenty of sweaters. Meanwhile Andy will be animal sitting Madison, Izzy and Captain at a beautiful temperature of 85 degrees.

My Favorite Holiday is in Nine Days

My absolute favorite holiday is coming up in less than two weeks and I am pretty excited for it. I just love Halloween. It is so fun to come up with a costume, get dressed up and go out to see what other costumes people come up with. Every year for the past 11 years I have always come up with a good costume and went out to meet all the other crazies out there and for the past five years I have been doing this with Andy by my side. As you have read before Andy is not a fan of theme parties so he is especially not a fan of Halloween. He just does not like to get dressed up. If he had his way we would stay in for Halloween or be lame and show up at a Halloween party not dressed up, but he doesn’t have his way on this one. When we first started dating I explained to him that I LOVE Halloween and this is what I do every year. I mean I even start thinking about my costume in July. How crazy is that? I also let Andy know that I am not a fan of Valentine’s Day so as long as he gets dressed up in a costume and celebrates my favorite holiday with me (with a smile on his face and no complaining about getting dressed up) then he is off the hook for the dreaded V-Day. Andy felt that was a good deal so every year he puts on a smile and gets dressed up for me and we don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. I finally purchased my costume last night and Andy is in the process of getting all his pieces purchased too. I am not going to ruin the surprise for all, so you will just have to wait until I post pictures after Halloween, well actually after November 1st. We have a Halloween party to go to on November 1st that we go to every year. It’s a good time with friends, costumes, creepy decorations and of course witches brew. I will display pictures following our party in less than two weeks.

Charity At the “Lake”

Last night Andy and I went to a charity event for my work. The event benefited a charity who is a client of my firm. The nonprofit department invited me to attend so of course I said yes. It was an outdoor event by the lake with some really good food, wine and a nice band. There are two things wrong with that sentence…lake and outdoor. The event started at 5pm and it is still really hot here to be holding an event outside. Sometimes once the sun goes down it cools off a little, but of course not on a night where I am at a charity event in dress pants. I was so hot that I was borderline miserable. The other thing that is funny is that it was held at Tempe Town Lake. Now for those who don’t live here let me explain this so called lake. It is a wider portion of the canal that people call a lake. So there is no breeze coming from the so-called lake. I have known about this lake but never visited it before. I have driven over the bridge that crosses this lake, but again never really actually stood in front of it laughing until last night. Coming from Madison which is surrounded by lakes makes me laugh at what is called Tempe Town Lake. It’s not a lake, it’s a wide canal. Other than the heat which caused my feet to sweat (and I hate sweaty feat) we had a really nice time enjoying the wine, great food, a nice band and of course the fabulous lake.
Correction: Ok, I guess it's not a canal, but instead the Salt River. Still, it's not a lake. It's far from a lake.

Check Your Lids Before Cooking

Madison has been pretty good since we have brought home Izzy to entertain her; however, she did strike again. Tonight I was making dinner and was boiling water. Once the water was boiling rapidly I grabbed for the lid and screamed while dropping the lid because it was extremely hot. My first instinct was “what the hell?” and “how did that happen?” I have never been burned by grabbing for the lid handle before. Then I looked at the lid again and realized the rubber that covers the metal handle was missing and it was missing from all the lids to our pots. That is when Andy came in to see what all the commotion is about. I asked him about the rubber missing from the lids and he said “Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you about that.” Yeah, I guess so! Apparently Madison got into the cupboard where the pots and lids are kept and chewed the rubber coating off all the lids. This apparently happened recently and Andy just forgot to tell me. I didn’t notice the missing rubber because who inspects their pots before cooking? I just did what I normally do and then found out that my fingers are on fire from touching extremely hot metal. So, as I type this I am typing slowly because the padding to my left hand fingers are pretty raw right now. I suggest anyone with a puppy who is a chewer to inspect the lids to their pots before boiling water.

Quick Trip to Badger Town

Andy and I were just back in Wisconsin for a quick trip this past weekend. We were in town to see family, friends and relive the old days tailgating and attending a Badger football game. Hey, that is how our relationship began five years ago…on a Badger football Saturday downtown at the Big 10 Pub. We were able to see our family, a few friends and do the Badger football experience all in the few days that we were there. We did not get to the Big 10 Pub where it all began, but we did get to our old stomping grounds at the Stadium Bar and Grill. I prepared for my WI trip by packing sweaters and making sure I would be warm enough for a few days in the cold, but to my surprise it was absolutely gorgeous the whole time we were there. I even mentally prepared myself for a frigid weekend in Wisconsin. Hey, you must remember that the week we left town it was in the upper 90’s in Phoenix and I didn’t even bother to check the weather report for Madison because I just assumed it would be cold. I was thrilled to find that it was perfect weather. I spent most of my time at home with family because once you are away from them you learn to appreciate them more and want to spend as much time with them as possible. I also did get to see a few friends while I was home, but the most fun I had was going downtown decked out in my Badger red and hanging out at our old Badger hangouts. It brought back so many memories. We got back to Arizona last night and let me tell you that I had a great time in WI and I am looking forward to our next brief visit in a month for another Badger football game.

Seven Pounds Can Create Exhaustion

I am absolutely exhausted and the reason for this is a seven pound Boxer puppy named Izzy. With all the running around, babysitting, potty training I swear I feel like I just had an actual baby…minus the painful giving birth part. I swear this puppy is so rambunctious and into everything that you cannot leave her alone for thirty seconds otherwise she is doing something that she shouldn’t be doing. She is also the reason why I haven’t posted in a few days because once I get home from work and take care of her I shower and pretty much pass out. You might think that I should be use to this because of Madison, but you might be surprised to find out that I did not participate in raising Madison until recently. By “recently” I mean since I have changed my attitude towards her, which was about a month ago. So, I am not use to puppy behavior. Andy and I have been taking turns in waking up in the middle of the night to take her outside to go potty. At least she wakes us up to let us know she has to go instead of just going in her cage. She is also pretty good about telling us she has to go to the bathroom when she is just chilling in the house; however, not when she is on our bed. She has peed on our comforter two times now and I can be part to blame for not responding to her cries that she needs to get down and go to the bathroom. There is nothing like washing a peed on comforter at 9:30 at night when you are already EXHAUSTED! Even so, Andy and I feel she is still a pretty good puppy…or at least compared to Madison. Despite my exhaustion it has been worth it because Izzy is so adorable and cute that I am glad to get up in the middle of the night to let her go to the bathroom. I mean how could you get mad at this face?

Making Room For One More

On Thursday we picked up our new addition to our family. Our new Boxer puppy is absolutely adorable and the biggest sweetie. We had a hard time picking out a name for her, but we settled on Izzy. Izzy is currently 7 pounds, but I am going to enjoy it while it lasts because before you know it she will be a solid 50 pounds…just like Madison. Now we have two dogs and one cat. Captain seems to be ok adjusting to another dog in his house. Madison just wants to play with her so as of right now everything is going good. Of course Andy and I are exhausted because the first two nights were long with Izzy getting up to go to the bathroom and crying at night. She is not use to a crate and I am sure she misses her parents and siblings. She has been doing very well though with potty training so far. I know it’s only been two days, but these two days have been a breeze with her…maybe that’s because Madison was such a terror that any new puppy would seem like a saint. Before we picked up Izzy from the breeders I did purchase plenty of puppy toys and items ahead of time to make sure she is completely spoiled when she would arrive at her new home. I have added pictures to my Snapfish account of Izzy. I know I sent out an email about the pictures, but I have added new ones since. I will continue to add more pictures to this Snapfish folder. I will include pictures of the two dogs together playing nice as soon as I take them. Enjoy!

http://www2.snapfish.com/share/p=64841223167419384/l=431344555/g=36312535/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Dreading the Return of the Snow Birds

Today is the first day of October and normally I would be thinking thoughts of cool weather, leaves and everything associated with the Fall season. Now that I live in Arizona that is not in my thoughts, but instead I am thinking about the swarm of snow birds that will soon be making their presence in this fabulous state. I do love living here, but it’s hard to get in the mood for the Fall season and it’s even harder to get excited about my favorite holiday in a few weeks because we are still hovering around 100 degrees. Plus, I am dreading the snow bird season that is right around the corner. I already started to notice the highway being more busy tonight on my way home from work and that got me thinking about my soon to be nightmare commute home from work every day until April 15th. Once all the blue hairs decide to enter the state and crowd the highways my commute will go from 35 minutes to close to an hour to get home from work. If I was in charge of the Phoenix Metro area I would make a law for all blue hairs who want to live here during their winter months, and this law would be a courtesy to all the actual residents of Arizona. My law would state that all snow birds are not allowed on the highways from 6am – 9am and then again from 4pm – 7pm to allow the actual residents of this state the easy access to the highways after a long day of work. I mean there is no need for them to enter the highways during this time. If they must leave their homes then they should stay clear of the highways and only use the main roadways. I am just dreading my soon to be extended commute to work and the blame falls on the snow birds for this. I am glad to get away from the congested highways soon and make a quick trip back to WI for a taste of Fall with some cooler weather and a good Badger football game.