A Perfect Weekend

The week before our anniversary, I emailed Andy and suggested we randomly go up North.

He replied in less than a minute: "YES."

We quickly found a rental that allowed pups and one week later we were off for a weekend away in Sutton's Bay.

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As soon as we arrived, we headed to the Sleeping Bear Dunes to watch the sunset.

About five years ago, we were in nearly the same spot doing the same thing.  Except at that time Andy pulled a pretty piece of jewelry out of his hiking pants.

The next morning we arose and took off on a 36 mile round trip bike ride to Traverse City.

We made sure to properly refuel once we reached town.

And on the ride back to Sutton's Bay we stopped at a winery to continue to fuel our journey.

The next morning I got up with sun and then we drove along the penninsula, visiting lighthouses and towns that time forgot.

We then began the drive back home but of course made sure to again properly refuel along the way.

We managed to hit up two new breweries on the trip which brought us to 71/108 (and counting) Michigan breweries visited. 

We enjoyed our beers and said our cheers to a perfect weekend getaway.

A Sh*tty Anniversary

Don't worry,  I mean that literally, not figuratively.

Wait, that might actually sound way worse.

Let me explain.

At 1 A.M. this morning, I was sound asleep.  Suddenly, Toby appeared in my dream.  And in my dream Toby was pooping.  And then I woke up.

And I smelled why my dream had evolved in such a fashion.

Earlier in the day, Toby had gotten into the trash and ate human food.  Toby doesn't eat human food because it gives him the big D.  We were worried this was coming, but thought we were in the clear when we went to bed that night.

So one hour into our anniversary, I went downstairs, made my big, sad, eye-contact avoiding dog come out of the corner and go outside and cleaned up the mess.  Don't be too jealous of my glamorous life.  I sure hope when they cast the Real Housewives of West Michigan they find me so I can share my stunningly opulent lifestyle with the world.

When I came back upstairs, Andy looked at me and said, "Happy Anniversary baby!  Are you showering before you bike to work?"

"It's not time for work.  It's one in the morning."

"Oh, why are you up?" *nose twitches* "OH NO!!!"

Happy Anniversary indeed.

Smiles for Miles

It's nearing the end of the workday on Wednesday, and I find myself dragging.

And then this photo rotates it's way to the background of my computer.

That would be the dogs at the dog park. 

Now, Toby almost always has a smile on his face, because he's oblivious to life.  "Ignorance is bliss" has never more perfectly defined something than it does Toby. 

Gordie on the other hand, is much more serious about life.  He's constantly contemplating life's biggest questions like "Where are my humans?" or "Have I peed on all the things yet?"

So to get a smile out of the more serious dog is a more special occasion.  Fortunately, we have discovered the two places where you will be guaranteed a G smile.  The first location is the inside of any vehicle.

And, yes, as seen earlier, the second location is the dog park.



If dogs could get drunk, that is what they would look like.

And now my Wednesday has been cheered, because dog smiles are contagious.

When Healthy Living Isn't So Healthy

Well, first there was the Schmohz 5K.  Although the running portion of this event is healthy, the part where you drink beer each lap and then celebrate your run by drinking more beers is slightly unhealthy.

I was going for a three-peat win, but I have not been running much these days and knew that would be a lofty goal.  All it takes is one fast lady to show up and dash my dreams.  And show up she did. 

I clocked in with my worst 5K time of the past 3 years.  Somehow this still earned me 2nd place female and a free growler of beer, so it all works out.

The next day brought broomball.  I managed to pull off some magnificent feat of clumsiness that is difficult to describe in a way that makes sense to anyone who wasn't there.  Basically I tripped for what felt like 100 miles, thought I caught myself on the bench ledge only to find the open door, fell through the door and landed on my ass.  Aside from that butt bruise, the real pain came when I stopped a shot with my right quadricep.  It hurt.  A lot.

Lucky for me I had tennis the next night.  A nice, easy non-contact sport.  Unless you get slammed with an overhead smash in the exact spot you got hit with a broomball the day before.

Then I went to Crossfit the next day couple of days.  I just started this class because there was a deal on Living Social and I have zero upper body strength.  I would guess that most kindergarteners could beat me in an arm wrestling match.  So the introduction of strength training to my arms made me almost cry during the second workout.  And then I got in the car to leave class and found myself UNABLE TO TURN MY STEERING WHEEL because I had just murdered my arm muscles.  I managed to figure out a a way to grab the wheel at the bottom without lifting my arms and somehow managed to get home without wrecking my vehicle or further wrecking my body.

So yesterday I did nothing but sit and drink beers. 

My muscles feel great and no part of my body is bruised or in pain.

Which therefore must make drinking the healthiest thing I did last week.

Still Here.

When work and life get busy, this blog seems to take the backseat.  Things seem to have slowed down a bit as of recent, so here's a quick recap of what I've been up to these past few weeks.

In the end of February we went to Michigan Winter BeerFest.

Why yes, my necklace is four times the size of Rachel's.  I get munchy when I get drunky.

A couple weeks later I went down to visit some Meese in Virginia.  We were going to run an official race, but the darn thing filled up before we could register.  So we made up our own race and t-shirts.

The good thing about making your own race is that you're in charge of post race beverages.

It was normal to start boozing at 10 am because it was St. Patrick's Day.

When we weren't running we were hanging with this adorable dude:

By the end of the weekend, he saw a carton of ice cream and without prompting said, 'That's Aunt Jewey's!"  Yes, child, all the ice cream in the world is mine.  Now spread the word.

Since we flew in and out of DC, we also remembered to stop and smell the cherry blossoms.

The next weekend I drove off to Chicago to celebrate the birthday of my very pregnant friend.

Since she was 8 months preggo, we celebrated her B-day by eating instead of drinking ourselves silly.  It almost felt like we were growing up.  Until we went to Babies 'R' Us to pick up her glider - we took it out of the large box and loaded it into our Jeep.  So naturally I then hid in the large box in the middle of the parking lot and they told me when a car was driving by so I could jump out and surprise some random stranger.  Yup, definitely still not grown up.

I of course also spent some time with these dudes:

Toby actually began training to be a West Michigan Therapy Dog.  We're about halfway through classes and he seems to be doing well.  That might be because "doing well" in this class requires a dog to be oblivious and non-reactive to everything around him.  So our bear is a natural.

Since I started this post with Michigan beer it only seems fit to end it with Michigan beer.  Last weekend we enjoyed the much sought after Founders KBS:

A local bar happened to score a keg - which was tapped out in about 15 minutes.  It is often listed as one of the top three beers in the world and bottles on Ebay can sell for ridiculous amounts of money.  We sat next to a gentleman who had driven all the way from Chicago just to have a glass. 

I'll try to do a better job of keeping all of my seven readers updated on my drinking life in posts to come.

A Marketer's Dream

You often hear about marketing for children.

Bright colors, favorite characters and celebrities adorning boxes and fun names all made so children beg their parents to buy them something.

Children and husbands that is.

The following conversation took place last night:

Andy:  OOO, honey, when you go to Meijer, can you get me Fastball Flakes?

Me:  Are you serious?

Andy:  YES!  I need them.

Me:  Ok, I'll get you Fastball Flakes.

Andy:  Oh!  There's a t-shirt too!  Buy me that too.

Me:  Seriously?  There's a t-shirt?

Andy:  Yes.  At Meijer.  I need it.  Buy it for me.  Loooooove you.

You win, Marketing Machine.  You win.

Like Son, Like Father

The memory of Toby's 3 ACL surgeries is still fresh as the snowfall we received in Michigan last night.

That's actually an old snowy Toby photo, but you get the idea.

His injury occurred 2 weeks before we left for Ireland.  My Mama helped nurse him back to heatlh while we were away.

So, here we sit, 2 weeks before we leave for New Zealand, for the hiking trip of a lifetime.

Toby's ACL is still in tact.

Andy's ACL?  Not so much.

He injured it at soccer and got the MRI results today. 

Fortunately the doctor thinks he can fit Andy for a brace that will keep him stable enough for hiking.  It might mean a little less than we'd planned, but we'll do what we can.  It might just mean we'll hike less and visit wineries more.  And more wine is never a bad thing.

So we'll delay surgery until our return.

At which point I should probably schedule a vacation and have my Mama nurse him back to health.

Whaddaya think Ma? At least you wouldn't have to fight to keep a cone on Andy's head.

So until we leave, Andy will be commiserating with the one furry guy who can best relate to his pain.

This Thanksgiving

This morning I woke up and started to prepare my share for the family Thanksgiving meal.  As I started to prepare my stuffed mushrooms, I set out a container of cream cheese on the counter to soften:

At some point I went upstairs.  When I returned, this is all that was left of the box, cream cheese, and tin foil encapsulating the cream cheese:

Somebody feasted early today.

Today I'm thankful I had the foresight to buy two blocks of cream cheese.

Happy Thanksgiving All.

It's Alive!

Work + Life = Busy These Days

This means I've neglected this blog for the past few weeks.  Here's a quick run down of what's been going on the past month of my life.

We tailgated with good friends:

Halloween happened:

Fireman Jackson was very excited.

We also went bananas for the holiday.

While one brudder was clueless about the fact he was wearing a costume, another brudder was less than amused.

We went to Chicago and I got to snuggle this little sweetie:

We continue to plan our upcoming 3 week adventure in this place:

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That's the South Island of New Zealand kids, and it looks like one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

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Andy finally caught up to the rest of us and turned 30. 

On his birthday he declared, "Yeah, so I'm pretty mature now.  I no longer find fart jokes funny."

And then he farted and giggled like a 5 year old.

He also brewed about 25 gallons of beer in the past month.

Doesn't everyone come home from work to find a 5,000 mL flask full of yeast on thie stove?

Finally, because I want to make your Friday a little better, here's a video of a cat that sounds like an old woman saying "No, no, no."

You're welcome.

Happy Hump Day

First, I kind of hate that people call Wednesday "Hump Day."

Second, I'm now going to talk about dog humping for the rest of this post.

Yes, that's right, the show has reached a new low.

If that kind of thing skeeves you out, you should probably stop reading now.

So, that dog Toby of ours.

He's kind of . . . special.

Actually, we connected the dots about why he might be so special a year or so ago.  In the memory of talking to Toby's breeder in the days after he was born, I recalled a certain bit of information.  I remembered her noting that "We lost one during the birth, but we were able to get him breathing again and now he's doing well."

We're fairly certain the puppy that lost oxygen during his birth grew up to be our lazy-eyed Tobias Guy Head.

Toby is pretty clueless about life in general.  This makes him blissfully happy most of the time, but also confused on a regular basis.

One thing he has never figured out:  his own body.

Before he got fixed, I think he tried to hump something once.  He has never been a dominant dog and has never understood why other dogs at the dog park regularly try to hump him.  He just stands around and looks confused when this happens.

Occasionally his body appears to be going through some sort of confused adolescence and he will start randomly humping.  Since he's asexual and doesn't know what to do, he will just walk around humping, acting confused and looking at Andy or I for help.  He'll sometimes try to sit or lay down, but will find himself unable to.  So he'll just be bewildered while he waits for his body to return to normal.

Andy and I find this amusing, and one morning Andy decided to record the event.

So for your viewing pleasure, here's a video of Toby stuck in a hump.

Happy Hump Day, friends and family.

Halloween Humor

Last night I was doing a little research for some Halloween costume ideas.

We have an annual Halloween party to attend and always try to come up with some grand idea.

Although I don't know if we'll be able to top the year Andy was Tigers closer Todd Jones and I was manager Jim Leyland.

Anyways, I was scrolling through the options for Funny Men's Costumes as Andy looked over my shoulder.

And then he started giggling.

And giggling.

And then he snorted something about "Happy Halloweenie."

Yup, you can probably guess the costume he found hilarious.

He then declared, "That costume is good for more than just Halloween.  You could just wear it whenever you wanna be awesome."

I vetoed the idea.

I guess that makes me a Hallowmeanie.