The new dog in the park

This weekend the temperature reached 70 degrees in Atlanta, both Saturday and Sunday! We had our balcony door open, I wore short sleeved shirts and flip flops, we had special Fresh Market burgers and zucchini for dinner because it felt like a warm weather meal, and we even fired up the margaritaville machine.

But the highlight of the weekend was walking around Atlanta's beautiful Piedmont Park and taking Roxanne to the special off-leash dog section. It was her first dog park experience, and mine as well. When I first saw how big it was and how many dogs were running around inside, I was a little nervous and honestly didn't know how well Roxanne would handle all that fun and freedom. Rob wasn't worried about her at all, and reassured me that she would be fine. So we went inside and I took off her leash, and after about a minute of trotting around and scoping the place out, she was off.



You would have thought I just watched my child get on a bus for her first day of kindergarten the way I reacted. I said, "Aw, Rob, I can't believe she just took off like that, without even looking back...she isn't even looking for us!" Rob laughed and reminded me that she is a dog and when given the opportunity to be off of her leash and around lots of other dogs she will take advantage of it and act like all of the other dogs. If she hadn't run off to go play, I would have been upset that she wasn't having fun like everyone else. She found little dogs to chase, got chased by big dogs, jumped over dogs, chased balls, ran around and around with packs of dogs, went up to strangers to let them pet her, rolled down the hill and got bark embedded in her fur, and she loved it!



She had such a good time at the park yesterday that we went back again today! We went in the morning, and Roxanne and I hit up the dog park while Rob went running. I'm sure Roxanne can't wait to go back.

Poop and barf

Rob called me on his way home from class the other night, and after about a minute this is what came up...

Rob: How's Roxanne doing? Any poop updates?
Me: She's good...ummm-
Rob: Wow haha, this is what our conversations have come to, when or if our dog pooped and what it looked like.
Me: Haha I know seriously...yeah she did this afternoon, it was small but pretty normal looking.
Rob: That's good.

In all fairness, Roxanne had been having digestive problems on and off for a couple of weeks. This included a couple nights of her getting up and sitting by our bedroom door every 2 hours to go outside. It's a good thing I have supersonic hearing at night and heard our 24 lb. pup walk across our carpeted bedroom floor and sit patiently by the door, or there would have been quite a mess to clean up in the morning. Rob, on the other hand, did not even feel me get out of bed, hear me say 'oh my gosh, again?!' or the multiple doors I had to open and shut to let her out and come back in. After a day of witholding dinner and treats and a few days of a bland diet of chicken and white rice, she is now back to her normal self and doing fine.

If I were to have told Rob a year ago that we would be having dog poop discussions on a daily basis, he would have closed his eyes, shook his head and said, "no." If I were to have told him that one day I was going to clean up dog barf and save it in a plastic bag for him to look at once he got home just so I could get a second opinion on what I think caused her to throw up, he would have said, "absoluetly not." Haha, but here we are! Oh Roxanne, we love you.

www.TheFunTheory.com

These video experiments are the best. They are not new, so I don't know why I haven't seen them until now on facebook, but wanted to pass them along to anyone else who might have missed them too!

Breaking tradition

Alright Girl Scouts of Atlanta, you are cramping my style. Since Rob and I started dating years and years ago, it has turned into somewhat of a tradition of mine that I get him girl scout cookies for Valentine's Day. We're not talking 1 or 2 boxes either...we're talking 3 boxes of thin mints, 3 boxes of tagalongs (actually, for the past 2 years I might have cut back to 4 boxes, since February is prime marathon training season). While at BU I could usually count on stumbling across the cookie booth at the GSU in January or early February. Once I graduated, I actually used the Cookie Locator tool on the Girl Scout website to track down at what bank or grocery store the girls would be setting up cookie booths in Newton or Brighton.

Well, tonight when I went to the Atlanta Girl Scout cookie page it says cookie booths begin on February 18th...4 days after Valentine's Day!! I've come up with what is probably a much better gift for Rob that I am excited about, and eating that box of thin mints that his Grandma Porter gave him last month satisfied the cookie craving to an extent...but still! I don't like having to break the tradition, Atlanta.

HERE WE GO

Though I have been singing this song all season, I am SO MUCH MORE EXCITED about singing it now!! I wonder at what point in the next 2 weeks Rob will get tired of me playing this in the apartment?

Steelers - Here We Go Steelers 2010 - 2011 version

Girls weekend in Atlanta!

Big shout out and hugs to Jo and Rae for making the trip down to Atlanta to visit last weekend! It was such a fun, refreshing few days getting to catch up, relax and do fun girl things together.

As most know, Rae is getting married October 1st, and Jo and I are in the wedding party. So while the 3 of us were together in the same city we took the opportunity to go bridesmaid dress shopping together. There was a dress Rae particularly liked that she wanted us to see, so I found it at a local shop and made an appointment for us. It wasn't until I looked up the bridal shop online that I realized it was the same shop where Atlanta's version of TLC's Say Yes to the Dress is filmed! We had a fun time trying on a variety of good and bad dresses, and overall it was a successful trip because I think the final bridesmaid dress selection has been made.

I took the girls to my favorite local brewery restaurant and we tried alligator egg rolls, which we all agreed we pretty good and the meat tasted similar to chicken but chewy/tougher. We went to the World of CocaCola downtown and filled up on way too many varieties of soda, enjoyed Mexican and margaritas at one of the many, many Mexican restaurants on Roswell Rd, and then made margaritas at home with our Margaritaville machine. We watched lots of football (Go Steelers!!) and made football party food, went shopping and checked out what Rae tells me is one of the best TJ Maxx stores in the country, and watched more HGTV than we could have imagined. Love you girls and miss you already.

Happy 2011

Long time no post! What's new? First, Happy 2011! Rob and I kicked off 2011 with my family in Orlando FL, followed by a Caribbean Cruise. Pretty awesome way to start the new year if you ask me. We all had a great time. The weather was nice and hot, the ship was big and beautiful, we snorkeled with sea turtles in St. Thomas(which I have been wanting to experience again since Barbados!), drank too much rum punch and got pirate tattoos, sang along with Kory every night in the Schooner Bar, ate way too much delicious food each day including midnight snacks of pizza and cookies, were reunited with the crazy cruise director Graham who was our very 1st cruise director 4 years ago if you can believe it, lounged on the beach, shopped in St. Maarten and over all just enjoyed another fun family vacation.

We got back from our cruise last Sunday, and upon arriving back to mainland immediately heard that a huge snow storm was headed to Atlanta that night. At first it seemed exciting and a little unbelievable. Well, it happened. We woke up Monday morning to about 4 inches of snow and ice covering the ground. Being from Boston, I know 4 inches does not sound like much, but when you take into consideration how Atlanta handles snowstorms, it is A LOT to deal with. I now understand why people say the South shuts down when it snows. There are no plow trucks or salt trucks to remove of the snow and ice, so therefore it just sits there making it impossible to drive anywhere, and we all sit here and wait for it to melt. Ahhh! Rob was supposed to start class on Monday, but classes were cancelled for the week, and Rob worked from home for 4 days because road conditions didn't improve until today, Friday. Finally, the ice is starting to melt. I can't wait until the sidewalks are clear because Roxanne is really starting to miss her daily walks!

Today is a good day, because Rae and Jo are coming to visit for the weekend! I have not seen them since last summer, so it will be great to catch up and show them snowy Atlanta!