Just a little smile

I took Oliver to the dog park today. The weather in Chicago has been beyond beautiful. We've had a wonderful winter altogether, and if the Mayan calendar is correct and the world is going to end in December, we certainly were treated to fair seasons as a parting gift!

While walking Ollie, I passed one of my favorite houses today with the following message written on the ground in chalk:





How awesome is that? It made me smile, you know, like one of those real natural feel-good smiles. Its kind of like a pay it forward, without intending it to be. It was a lovely way to end my day!

Here are a few photos from Sunday. Oliver and I walked through Lincoln Park Zoo, Lakeshore Nature Preserve, and to North Avenue Beach:














P.S. - no dogs allowed on North Avenue Beach... however it's technically the off-season so we broke the rules :)

Happy New Year!

I am starting off the year right again, by venturing back into the world of healthy living. After a two week hiatus (my trip to see my parents) I'm ready to continue on the journey.

I spent my morning sifting through the Sunday paper for coupons to clip to go to the grocery store. P&G had a lovely stack worth of $100 off their products (combined, of course) so I found treasures in their stack.

The grocery store wasn't as busy as I thought it was going to be. There were a few people here and there, but I mainly had it to myself, which is good. I get anxious when I go shopping and there are a lot of people around, which in turn makes me feel unproductive because all I'm worried about it getting out of there.

I am making slow-cooker lasagna right now run my brand new slow cooker that I bought at Kohls the day after Thanksgiving for $9.99 (down from $39.99, I did great right?!).

I don't remember Oliver being such a begger, but he sure was at my mom and dads house. As I was making the lasagna today, he was at my feet the entire time!





Talk about hamming-it-up! But he didn't get anything from me. :)

Now I wait 4-6 hours for this lasagna to cook and hen it will be meal time :). Yay for delicious WW friendly recipes :)

Holiday Window!

Since I am alone this holiday season (boo hoo, i know... i already had a mini cry this morning thinking about it), I don't feel the need to put up and decorate a tree. Even though my opinionated friends (and my mother I'm sure) will say, "but you can do a mini tree!", .... no, thank you.

So I am going to decorate my window. I have a huge picture window in my living room that is begging for attention, and I will happily oblige it's thirst for it.

Oliver is ready to get to work and lend a helping hand!





Window before:





First I gathered my supplies:

Ornaments (bought these at Walmart a few years ago, never used them!)



Ribbon / Gold Rope





And I also got an extendable curtain rod. To be honest, I have no idea where it came from. I don't know if the movers grabbed it from the house and brought it with, if it was already here in the apartment when I got here, or if it really does belong to me. I have no idea! All i know is that its been sitting under my dining room table and is now getting its use. Anyway, I fitted the rod to the inside of the picture window:





It's hard to see on this picture, but the obvious rod that sticks out has my curtains on them, but it's underneath that rod that I put the extendable rod.

Oliver checked it out to make sure it's sturdy and right:





Then I started hanging the bulbs, eyeballing the different lengths. I tied the top in small knots so all I have to do to take them down is cut them with scissors. While I was up hanging a few, I got down and saw that Oliver wanted attention. He put all of his toys in my "work area"... Sorry buddy, ya gotta wait!





Here I am, half done:







And then I ran out of ribbon/rope. Damn it. I'm three-quarters done so I'll pick up some more ribbon during my lunch break tomorrow.









- Blogging to you from the lovely iPad2. Xo.

Doggie woes

What a rough day it was!

Today started like any other I've talked about -- wake up, throw on some sweats and take out the dog for a walk. However, halfway through our walk something happened to Oliver's hind legs and they stiffend up and then turned into jelly. He can't walk. I immediately got down to his level and started to pet him, and he crawls with his only two working legs into my lap. I start to cry sitting in the middle of the sidewalk, holding him. We sat there for several minutes and then try to walk again, no dice. At this point I picked him up and carried him home. Something's wrong.

Nothing changes while we are home, so I start crying again and realize I must take him to the hospital.

We get to the hospital and he starts walking around like nothing happened! My jaw dropped! He made me look crazy! However, the doctor did say his knee might have been the cause of his temporary paralysis in his hind legs and that he'll need surgery. This surgery costs $2,500.00. I called all over Chicagoland and there are only so many places that can do this surgery because it requires an orthopedic surgeon to do this work. Ugh. My poor baby though. He seems to be doing better tonight, but I'm still worried about what happens next time this occurs. I fret to think of it, I am not resilient in crisis that involves my safety or those of my loved ones.

Oy. I'm going to bed.


- Blogging to you from the lovely iPad2. Xo.

Mr. Oliver, sharkdog

Mr. Oliver's Halloween costume last year.... sharkdog!

Weekender

This weekend was a busy one! Sort of.

I woke up yesterday morning and started my day by baking some honey spice bread. I love to bake and this recipe was super easy and very tasty. It feels great to be able to bake again! I didn't bake much last year because i was subjected to using an electric stove. I never could get used to it and it always felt like the temperature was hotter than what the dial read, and then when I would try to cook things at a lower temperature, it didn't come out right. It was a no win situation so I left that place defeated by the stove. But anyway, here is a picture of the bread:











It is so appropriate for this time of year... a little spice and cinnamon, perfecto!

I baked early in the morning because I knew I had to get over to Petco early. I took Oliver to a traveling clinic that they hold there several times a month that offers shots at a bargain price of $51 (luvmypets.com). My vet offers these shots for half price every Wednesday and the cost at half price would have been $137.50 so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to save about $100.

We were 5th in line but it still took us about an hour to be seen. Oliver did really well until they gave him the rabies vaccine... apparently it stings when they administer it and it freaked him the hell out and he started flailing around on the table and crying and running for me. This made me start crying because I don't want to see my little boy in pain and when he leapt into my lap and kept whimpering, it just broke my heart! The doctor came over and gave him the rest of the shot while he was sitting on my lap and he did a little better because he was with me. Poor baby :(. But we came home and he slept and relaxed the rest of the day. I let him sit outside for a while to soak up the great weather and to do his favorite thing -- people watch!








This morning I took Oliver over to the dog park. I drove over there and spent a good 15 min looking for parking. The city is getting ready to do some street work in the area and there are blocks and blocks that have no parking anytime posted on the trees. Such a pain in the ass! Anyway, we spent some time there and just got home. My darling Oliver is now asleep next to me as I type.








The Chicago marathon is going on today. The path doesn't cross me directly but it is in the vicinity of where I live. There have been helicopters in the sky all morning following the runners in the lead and there are supporters walking around with their hand made signs of encouragement cheering on their loved ones. Have you ever attended a marathon to cheer someone on? I had the fortune experience a couple years ago of traveling from one end of the city to the other in the middle of the marathon and it's such a heartwarming experience to see the unity and support.

It's something added to my bucket list -- run the Chicago Marathon. Ahhh.... One day!

Enjoy some fall pictures around my neighborhood:

Flu shots

Who wants to see what I made and circulated via email to the employees in my company today?





Yep, sent this out office-wide. I try to add a little laugher to everyone's day :). And of course who can not think my baby is adorable?? Hopefully the Executive branch finds the humor in it... and that I still have a job tomorrow.

Smallies & Freshii

I just have a lot of random small things to say:

Oliver destroyed yet another toy to smitherine. I think we had it for 1 full week this time. Groundbreaking.




Have you ever had butternut squash lasagna? My coworker and I wait for it to pop up on the Cafeteria Menu. It's not every week, but when it is available I go crazy for it! I'm borderline obsessed with it. I buy two pieces so I can split it between two days for lunch.




I was at the Aon Center this week at a workshop and they served Freshii for lunch. Hello, delicious! I don't even like wraps so I was concerned if I was going to be able to consume anything for lunch. So I chose their "signature burrito" which is comprised of brown rice, small pieces of BBQ chicken, red onions, sweet corn, jack & cheddar, with low fat ranch dressing. I had this with a glass of green tea and I was more than satisfied! My colleague tried the anti-oxidant salad and she raved about it. So good! I was going to go there to try my sandwich again for lunch today, but it was butternut squash day :)

Oliver, the next dog jaunt...?

I spent a lot of time today looking for a place to board Oliver when I go to my parents house for Christmas. I'll be gone 9 days total and with the cheapest rate I found, the cost will be $270 to board him and with this boarding he will just be staying in a cage all day long, no play time or anything. This made me really sad to think of my poor Ollie locked up like prisoner while his mommy is off having a wonderful holiday.

I'm fairly certain he can fly with me under the seat. I frequent a blog called "dog jaunt" (www.dogjaunt.com) which entails the journeys that the blogger has with her Cavalier King Charles named Chloe. This blog gives me hope that I won't have any issues flying with him.

Today I purchased online the same carrier that the blogger uses for Chloe, the sturdibag!





The picture above is the bag, the exact size and color that I bought for Oliver (and the size that Chloe uses) and it seems like it fits just about right. I, of course, will have plenty of other uses for the carrier and will also put the bag to the test before the scheduled trip.

Promise...later!

I promise to post later. In the meantime, please enjoy Oliver and his new bed pics. :)

Dog Park Pics

Just a few pics ive taken of Oliver's fun adventures in the dog park :)

Pool?

*hint: click on image to enlarge*