R3

House-trained.

We took Brooks to the vet again today. He is terrified of the vet, whereas Palmer has always loved the vet. This is just one of the many, many ways in which the two dogs are very different. The vet asked all the typical questions; how is he eating? (good) sleeping? (good) any coughing, (no) sneezing?(occasionaly, but generally, no) get along with the bigger dog? (bosses him around) housetraining?? Uh Oh. We get straigt A's until that comes up. We say he is learning, which is entirely true. He is learning, and let's define 'housetraining' while we're at it. Shortly after our roommate moved out in Novemember, we transformed his room into a dog room. We covered the floor with foam pieces (easy to clean up) and threw all their toys, pillows, etc. in there for them. We have big plans to put gates up in the room and let them play in there during the day rather than keeping them in their kennels while we are at work. We haven't quite finished that, but Brooks still takes full advantage of the room designed especially for him. He has the biggest bathroom any dog, or human, in our family has ever seen. Is he housetrained? Sure. He knows where he can and can not eliminate in the house. He's got a whole room dedicated to it.

Date Night.

Saturday night is date night according to the resolutions we made. This Saturday we ended up at a restuarant called Bahama Breeze in Raleigh. When we go out to eat we like to sit at the bar or next to the kitchen if it is out in the open. Sitting at the bar generally eliminates the long wait we would otherwise endure. Another advantage to sitting at the bar is being able to overhear conversations that people are having around you. This week we learned there are numerous types of "date nights". Josh and I were having the first kind: "Finally a date night". We waited all week and were finally out to eat, enjoying each other's company, eating good food, and enjoying be out in general. We even took our own picture just like a cheezy couple on a date would.

The guy sitting to my left was having another kind: "Sneak a date night". He was sitting at the bar with two very pretty girls, laughing, enjoying cocktails, obviously flirting, and occassionally talking quietly on his cell phone. His phone rang, "Hey, baby!"...." I'm in Greenville right now"...."No, I really have no idea when I will be home"....."I'm sorry, its taking longer than I thought."...."I love you too. Bye, Baby".

The guy sitting to the right of Josh was having yet another kind: "Trap a date night". He happened to pick up a lovely lady who was on her way out the door. Her food was already in a take-out container when he sat down beside her and ordered a large portion of chicken wings. He talked her ear off about mindless matters and she made every attempt to take her leftovers and hit the road. Everytime she had an out, he asked her a cliche "get to know you" question. He was clearly having a nice time getting to know this girl, and she was having a hard time getting away.

We look forward to date nights each week and we will definitely continue to sit at the bar to avoid waiting lists and buzzers and to catch free entertainment provided by costomers enjoying their Saturday night as well.

Cooking.

Everyone makes resolutions upon the New Year and Josh and I can proudly say that we have stuck to at least ONE of them. We cook every single night of the week except for Saturday which is the day we go out to dinner. As opposed to what, right? Well, we were guilty of donating a lot of our paychecks each week to the lovely fastfood establishments, chain restuarants, and a few good take out joints in Knightdale, NC. So rather than eating out the majority of the time, we have decided to cook a majority of the time. Having said that, Josh does most of the cooking, and I get assigned the easy meals like soup and spaghetti. Although I'm learning, I don't quite have the art of cooking down just yet. Then again, I've never gone to the toolbox during meal prepartation, either. I might have more to learn than I thought.

Jinxed.

Over the past few months we have been hit with good luck and bad luck and luck that we haven't figured out yet. Lately, Josh and I have been buying powerball lottery tickets, watching the 11:00pm news on Wednesday and Sunday nights, moaning some comments out of disappointment when our numbers don't match, and then getting up the next morning and checking the gigantic billboard on the way to work to see if anyone else was more lucky than we were. As luck would have it, no one has been too lucky in a long time, and the jackpot has reached a whopping 240 million dollars! So with great excitement, Josh and I bought our tickets on Moday for Wednesday night's big drawing. We were both extremely hopeful and kept having ridiculous conversations about what we would do with the money when we won, who we would call first, etc.
Tuesday morning came around, the day before the big drawing and life was going on as it usually would. I got up and took a shower, picked out some boring scrubs to wear to work, drove to work listening to the Q-morning Crew on 94.7, called in to play "Battle of the Sexes", and WON AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's right, I am a two time champ, this time winning a 4 pack of tickets to a Carolina Hurricane's game! I called Josh and told him the news. He was excited, but sounded a little disappointed as well. I asked him what was wrong. He simply explained that while he was excited about the game, he's pretty much decided we have no chance to win the lottery now. Apparently our odds of winning decreased after I won the game show because it was completely unlikely that we would win two things in one week. I jinxed us. I had never even thought about it.

Not a single number of ours matched in last night's drawing. Some lady in Missouri is enjoying 200+ million dollars today. I wonder if she would want to go to a hockey game. I've got some tickets I might sell to her, for a price.

Happy Birthday Nee-Belle!

Today is my sister's birthday. Renee is 5 years older than me, making her the big 3-0 this year. I decided that my present to her would be to start blogging again!! I have taken some time off but I promise from this day forward to resume writing and contine a faithful blogging lifestyle. This picture was taken at Christmas on Grandma's steps (bringing back those traditions) of Renee and her family. Aren't they cute? They are most definitely the most entertaining family I know. I really enjoy hainging out with Renee because she and I have a similar sense of humor and she can always make me laugh. I remember when we were younger we would try and sit next to one another at church, even though mom didn't really approve, and we would try and make each other laugh by writing notes on the the bulletins and 'we care cards'. I also remember when we were younger we would fight, like all sisters do, about a lot of things but mostly about clothes. I have to admit I would get more mad at her than she would at me when she wore something of mine. Sorry, Nee. I owed her, too. She let me stay in her room all time because I was a huge scaredy-cat and didn't like sleeping alone in my room. She really was, and still is, a great sister. I miss her every day. Happy Birthday, Renee. I love you!! Eat a birthday brownie for me!!