Cat Ears & Coffee: Louie

Little Bits: Mighty Fine

One more weekend gone, but one more week until our staycation! Sorry, but not really. This past weekend turned out to be a lot more relaxing than I thought it would, cancelled plans do that, but I am more than fine with a lazy weekend.

Friday night we went to our friend Brian's birthday party, met some awesome people, and had some great food. We then stopped by Ferndale to catch up with some other friends, and to have a few more drinks. We ended up at home pretty late, but it was a good start to the weekend after such a busy week.

Saturday, Kyle, Dan, and I headed out for breakfast at Coolidge Cafe in Oak Park. After a quick coffee run, Dan went home, and Kyle and I decided a nap was in order, before we sat on our butts and watched TV for the rest of the night (productive much?). We are watching so many shows right now, Gotham, Sleepy Hollow, Grimm, Red Band Society, and New Girl. I think we have a problem.

Sunday we went our for brunch again, this time with Kyle's family. After, Kyle, Brian and I headed over to the Rustbelt Market in Ferndale for a bit. I already picked out a few things that I want to come back for on small business Saturday, Christmas gifts, yo! We also hit up both Value Worlds in our area (the only thrift store open on Sunday), and we ended up with some really awesome stuff. Kyle and I both got some thick sweaters for $2-$4 a piece, you can't beat that! I also bought two vintage dresses for cheap, and some awesome decor for the house. I told Kyle that our house had a "touch of 70's" to it, and he looked at me and said "It looks like the 1970's barfed all over our house." Whatever Kyle! It is going to be a little while before the living room is done, but I seriously cannot wait! It will definitely have some 1970's touches, including the giant wooden clock that Kyle picked up (yep, he is responsible as well).

I have a really busy week, at home and at work, but I think I should be able to squeeze in a few posts. EXCITE. Though, it is supposed to be cold as balls tomorrow, so I might just hibernate instead.

1) Louie, sitting pretty.

2) Stumptown coffee bottles at Red Hook in Ferndale.

3) Snowy leaves.

4) My loves, Louie & Joseph.

11:47 AM
9 Comments

Right Meow

Joseph

11:00 AM
17 Comments

Joseph

Detroit

Meet Joseph! I know what you are thinking, that we are broke, and that I am always talking about how broke we are, and how much budgeting that we have to do, so of course getting a dog is a great idea, correct? WELL. Here is the deal: Kyle and I have talked about getting another dog for over a year now. I grew up in a house where we had a two dog minimum most of the time. We didn't want a really tiny dog, on account of our territorial kitties, but another big dog like Louie wold probably be too much to handle as I tend to walk Louie alone pretty often. We looked at a few pet adoption fairs, but the $300+ adoption fee wasn't something we had on hand, and we really wanted to see how well Louie got on with another dog living with us.

Enter Joseph! My friend Ashley posted a pic of this little guy on Facebook, linking to the page of the guy (Thom) who had found him. Thom had already gotten Joseph's shots, got him fixed, and a microchip in him. He just needed a forever home, so I of course showed the pic to Kyle, who told me to go ahead and message Thom and let him know that we were interested. At the time, someone else was keeping him for a week as a trial run, but we were to be contacted if it didn't work out. A week later Joseph came over to hangout with Louie, and we also agreed to keep him for a week to see how things went.

Louie LOVES other dogs. Sometimes he can be a bit shy, and he is pretty protective over his food/water bowl, but other than that he loves to play. When Joseph arrived, they pretty much did laps around the yard non-stop for a good 10-15 minutes. We took them for an awkward walk (they have since improved very much!), and then brought them inside for their first night together.

At first, Louie was a little confused ('Hey! That is MY Momma!') but has since grown to really getting along with Joseph. Of course Louie and the kitties need a little extra attention for this transitional period, but nothing a baby gate (for the cats), and a few extra hugs can't fix. Right now almost every night ends with Louie sleeping on my feet, and Joseph sleeping on my stomach, and it is THE BEST.

As far as what type of dog Joseph is, we are not sure! He is definitely pit mixed with something, boxer maybe? He was estimated at 10 months old, so he might grow a tiny bit more. We did not name him, but Kyle was really fond of the name, so we just kept it. He also goes by "Joey, Joe Joe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mo Joe Joe Joe, puppy, little dude, and brindle butt".

Louie has always been fond of women, but leery of men, and children. Joseph seems to love everyone and everything, so I am hoping his positive attitude rubs off on Louie. They are both rescue dogs from Detroit, and extremely lovable.

It is very interesting trying to walk the two of them, but it gets a little easier each time. We still have A LOT of training ahead of us, as Joseph likes to get into things when we are not home. He tried to eat our couch! It is a good thing that all of our furniture is hand-me-downs, or cheap crap from IKEA, but still. We put his crate in the living-room (where the couch is), but left him out of it, and he was much better after that-I got that tip from my bestie Jamie. I can't get too mad at him though, Louie did his share of damage as a puppy, including eating several pairs of shoes, and an entire can of soup once-can included.

Because pits are such a huge problem in our area (people like to just dump them lose in Detroit), there tends to be an overabundance of them. The place where Thom took him is All About Animals, and we took Louie there to get fixed when we first got him. They are amazing with pets, and have really good prices on all of their procedures. A coworker of mine also catches neighborhood cats, brings them in to be treated, and then releases them, and they have always been really good with cats as well. If you live in Michigan, I really do recommend checking them out.

A HUGE thank-you to Thom for taking care of everything, and even driving Joseph over for us! He even gave us half of a giant bag of dog food, and loaned us his crate, what an awesome person! We are very grateful for this little dude, crazy as he is, we are absolutely smitten already.

6:35 PM
14 Comments

Little Bits: Party Party

Friends

It was supposed to be a somewhat quiet weekend. WAS. I feel like now that summer is winding down, we are trying to pack everything in before the fall semester starts for Kyle. It is a good thing that we are also looking at a packed September, and a full October as well.

Anyway, Friday my brother Mark and his girlfriend wanted to meet up for a few beers that night. I came home, cleaned, made dinner, walked the pups, and by the time we got a hold of Mark, he was already drinking and watching the cars at the Woodward Dream Cruise a few miles away. Kyle and I didn't want to fight the traffic, so we biked up to Ferndale for a few beers with Kyle's brother Brian, and our friend Dan. After some drunk karaoke, Kyle and I decided to bike home because we both had busy days on Saturday.

I woke up a little late the next morning, and rushed to Detroit to take our dogs to the Detroit Dog Party. Yes, you read that correctly, DOGS. We now have a new fuzzy family member! His name is Joseph, and I am going to do a proper blog post on him this week. I met up with our friend Mike, and his friend Anna and let the dogs run around to wear off some energy. I then headed back to Oak Park to drop them off before heading to Meijer and Costco for all of our groceries. I also stopped by Kyle's work to say "hello", and also to get free food, because food. I then came home and had to sort out the pantry area in the basement so that I could put all of our food away.

I had time for a quick nap before we had to get ready for the intern's 21st birthday party. Our friends Dan, and Mariah came along, and although it was pretty far from our house, we ended up having a pretty good time. We didn't get home until 3:30 am! Then on Sunday we decided to head out to the Renfest with our friends Aaron and Jenny B because we LOVE going, and we also don't get to hangout with them as much as we would like. We ended up spending a little too much money over the weekend, but we also got one credit card paid off, so I guess it cancels out, right? ;)

I managed to remember to take the camera with me this weekend, so as soon as I get some spare time, I will get the photos up here instead of the usual crappy instagram pics.

But first, coffee.

1) Group photo at Renfest.

2) PBR, obvs.

3) "Impatiently waiting for everyone to head over so that we can leave" selfie.

4) Louie and Joseph at the Detroit Dog Party.

5) Mo Joe Joe Joe!

10:59 AM
10 Comments

Little Bits: Hello August

Friends

August! My favorite summer month, it is good to see you. We packed in another eventful weekend, starting with some friends over for a bonfire on Friday night. Even though we have had a billion fires in our new fire pit this summer, a cop came by and said that ours wasn't legal (boo!). So we checked online and went up to the Oak Park police station to see what we needed to fix so that it was up to code. They gave us the phone number for the fire marshal, and he is supposed to come by this week and check it out.

In the meantime, we roasted marshmallows over our little charcoal grill, and had a pretty good time.

Saturday I headed down to Eastern Market, and Meijer by myself to get our produce for the week. I ended up buying all of our groceries, my lunch, and a coffee under $50. We have been trying really hard to save money, and I have been freezing all of our leftovers and making us some interesting dinners. I have been consuming a lot of raw veggies with my lunches to help balance it out. Yay food!

There were also some crazy storms that came through on Saturday night, and in the process our new router died (again, boo!). Kyle is dropping it off, so hopefully I will be able to do another post later this week. Anywho, later we went out for $2 drinks with our friends and had a pretty awesome time.

Speaking of food and good times, we met up with our friends Anne, Chris, and their little guy Ethan for brunch on Sunday. CUTEST.KID.EVER. Look at that face! It was great seeing them, because we don't see them all that often. Obvs we need to hangout more so that Ethan will let me pinch those cheeks.

We did bike around a little over the weekend, but we wanted some actual exercise, as well as some alone time, so we headed out to Paint Creek Trail to walk Louie. Normally we would have stayed out all day, but it was SUPER hot and Louie was pigging down his water, so we only stayed for a few hours. We did find a little stream and let Louie loose to cool off, and he loved it! Normally Louie is afraid of everything, so that was really cool. After, we killed whatever we worked off by stopping at the cider mill for cider and doughnuts.

All in all, a really great weekend!

11:02 AM
11 Comments

Party Time, Excellent

Life

10:58 AM
16 Comments

Little Bits: Warmer Weather

Kyle

It's Friday! And already the world feels like a better place. I know the concept of weekends doesn't apply to everyone, but whenever you are so close to a day, or maybe two days off, things just feel a tiny bit better. Unless you are a person who thrives on working. Freak.

Anyway, how about a quick life update post? Because instagram, instagram, blah, blah, blah.

Projects- I love them. I just finished a few smaller projects for the front of the house, and it really is looking nice. I am probably going to take a few pics and do a before after/progress post soon. I just need to mow my lawn first. Not that the lawn has to look perfect for a blog post, it just looks like a small jungle at the moment. Oops.

We are kind of on the broke-side still, so I don't think we will be buying a whole lot of decorative items for the garden this year. We did cave and get this cool guy last month though, because it is a blue lawn gnome. We also just purchased two 55 gallon plastic drums from my work that we are going to make rain barrels out of, which should help us out a lot considering how much rain we've been getting. Excite!

Spring Cleaning- This has mostly moved to the backyard now, but I still think that I am going to just donate most of the stuff that we don't use. People have too much stuff! I have gotten better about being organized though! It is much easier to pick out clothes for the next day when your wardrobe is smaller. It sounds lame as hell, but by doing a few things the night before, my mornings have been loads better.

Also, if you buy sidewalk chalk and leave it out for your siblings to see it, they will write 'penis' on the driveway. Oh wait, that's just my family. Carry on.

Healthy Things- We have been trying our hardest to eat better, at home and while out. This has been harder for Kyle, as it is now ice cream season.

Warmer weather also means lots of Louie outings. We have been taking him on seven mile walks lately, and he loves it. He may be a chubby bastard, but that dog would walk forever if you let him. Best workout buddy ever!

The best part of Spring is that Kyle is out of school until fall semester, woot! I love, LOVE my alone-time. However, I also really love not being the only person doing ALL of the chores in the house. That shit gets old, quick. Plus, there is another person around for Liam to terrorize when he is over!

Happy Friday!

11:06 AM
15 Comments

Lou-Doge

Louie

10:21 AM
17 Comments

Little Bits: So Fresh And So Clean Clean

Instagram

What started as just fiddling around with the background on this here blog yesterday, developed into a spring-cleaning of sorts. I made some new buttons, and simplified things overall, as well as tweaking a few things here and there, things that are probably noticeable to only myself, but still. I feel much better. I also cleaned our bathroom yesterday, and was noticing how gross the walls have gotten. I think once Kyle is finished with this semester, we need to do a deep cleaning on the house. It would also be nice to prepare a meal without having some sort of pet hair added to it. Flavorful as it may be.

What else have I been up to? Well! Now that you've asked!

Simplifying- It started with the blog layout, and now I think my closet is next on the list. I am pretty sure that I go through a purge annually anyway, but getting rid of clothes that I don't wear is fun because part of the process is figuring out what to do with them. Ex: craft with them, sell them, or give them away.

Eating- Because food is amazing! I have returned to my farmers market addiction, and it is beautiful. I am trying to make more meals at home, and limit our meals out. I have also been making giant batches of soup on the weekends for lunch meals during the week, and freezing the leftovers. It is working out pretty well, but now I am in the market for a small deep-freezer.

IIIIII Workout!- The guys and I have started a new health challenge! We are in a weight loss competition (by percentage), as well as a daily steps competiton. Whatever motivates my ass, as well as gets Louie out-and-about is good.

Making- My own pretty much everything. It started with soups, and it has evolved into cleaners, as well as beauty supplies. I have been experimenting with coffee ground face scrubs as of late, Kyle is a great guinea pig.

Coconut oil-I have jumped on the bandwagon, and I don't care, I don't care! I LOVE this stuff! It is great for cooking, it can be used as a 1:1 ratio for butter for baking, and it is great for the digestive system. I have been putting a little bit of it in my coffee in the morning, it takes some getting used to, but it is great. Other uses: Great makeup remover, face/body moisturizer, hair treatment, lip balm, lubricant, and you can even add some to your pet's water dish to help freshen their breath. I have also started using it for oil-pulling, and so far it has been working out okay. Every time I talk to someone who has been using it, they give me even more ideas. The possibilities are endless, endless I tell you! Okay, I'm done now.

Anyway, I can safely say that life has been pretty busy, but okay for the most part. I despise the heat, but I am ready for Spring. I want to work on my garden, clean the salt out of my car, and be able to take Louie out for a walk without falling on my ass from the ice. It's the little things in life. Happy Monday!