Finally Back

Hellllllloooooo Everyone! I am glad to be back and in a space that I can write and let everyone know what I have been up to. Thanks Lyn for the swift kick in the a** to get me going.

First off, it was a very good vacation. We did a lot of traveling. Typically this would be a good thing, and in the past we have always booked on Midwest as we thought they had the larger and more comfortable seats around--oh, and you get a free chocolate chip cookie. Who can beat that. Well, seems as if Midwest has done some downsizing and now are only flying their smaller planes to WI--meaning smaller seats. This sucks people because I have a fat bottom. In fact, so does DP-->two fat bottoms in a small seat does not for a good flight make. We have come to accept this, and are working on reducing the largeness of our bottoms . . .but alas I digress. We get on the plane and find ourselves very, VERY close. Smushed to the point that we weren't going ANYWHERE should that plane have gone down. It was quite embarrassing really, and I am so glad I was traveling with DP and could be close to her. We vowed to not feel that way the next time we fly.

We were delayed getting out of Philly by about 3 hours, though we did get to see Santa at the airport and had our picture taken with him. We made it to Green Bay around 6pm which wasn't too bad. It was -5 degrees when we got there--COLD, but there was a ton of snow on the ground, and it snowed almost every other day while there.

While there we enjoyed the company of DP's family, including her sister and her boyfriend who came over from MN. We had a good time on Christmas day, and watched a few movies while there-including my new favorite-Mama Mia! How fun is that movie. I voted to watch the sing along version, but was vehemently shot down.

The day after we celebrated my birthday by going shopping. Not my first choice of birthday activities, but it was tolerable and I even managed to find some goodies.

I got the best Birthmas present this year. I got an iPhone which I am in love with. I am struggling right now with finding that balance between wanting to be connected, and feeling TOO connected. It was lovely to be able to look something up the other day while DP was driving, and be able to click on a phone number from a website and have the phone call it. I have been slightly distressed about not having the calendar application I need, since a majority of the reason I got this thing was to reduce the amount of gadgets I carry. I am looking at how I can get Outlook. It is very expensive, and I thought I would see if maybe someone had it that I could use. We will see. Once that little bug is figured out I will feel settled with it. For now I will maintain my Palm. DP was very jealous of my phone and ended up buying one of her own last night with her Christmas earnings.

I received a lot of other great things, and I am continually amazed at how well DP's family knows me and gets me. Their gifts are generally spot on!

It was good to just hang out and lay low. We had to board the dogs, and we were missing them a lot. Luckily we had Riley's sister Molly to keep us company. She was a riot in the snow, and made us wonder how Riley would be in the snow--not that we will ever know because apparently it doesn't snow in PA anymore.

As for the pups . . .we boarded them at this place that looks great, and the people seemed really nice. We visited twice and made the decision to board there even though it was pricey and about 40 minutes away. We signed them up for three half days of daycare each, and gave them the appropriate number of toys allowed. They would be boarded together, which we were happy about. We called once and checked on them and they said they were doing well. We picked them up and checked out. We realized we weren't charged for daycare, but just assumed they forgot to charge us. When we got home, we realized that none of their toys had been taken out of the bag, and I was really mad about this. Could it have been that they didn't go to daycare and also didn't have their toys? This was NOT a cheap place to board the dogs, and I am really upset thinking that they were in the kennel for 10 days with no toys and no opportunity to get out. Also, when we picked them up we were told that Addie had pooped in the kennel that morning and they needed to bathe them . . .we got there around 1pm and they were still pretty wet, and it was COLD. I don't know. I am really upset and want to call and ask them, but what do I say . . .I am SO not confrontational! I think we will look for another place to try the next time.

Riley starts training this week, and due to Addie's behavior and the fact that the class is not full, they are going to let us bring Addie back through as well for a refresher. Since the kennel, Addie has been acting out and growling and snapping at Riley for coming near her, or near any of the toys. They seem to be better today, but they weren't really like this before. We have to be better at walking them daily, and have decided that we will each be responsible for a pup a day to walk.

What else--more about my visit with my parents in another post. We went up there after we returned on 1/31 and spent new Years with them. As always it was a dramatic event . . .

Hope you all had a great holiday and Happy New Year.

B-I-N-G-O

So, it was any other ordinary Saturday, when we--meaning DP, DP's sister, and her man friend and I decided that we would go play BINGO on the reservation. Now, when this idea was brought up a while back, I was very excited--I had always heard that gay bingo was fun. Well, I came to find out later that the bingo we were going to play was not in fact gay bingo at all. Oh well, it would be fun none the less. Right?

Let me tell you, this ain't your elementary school bingo, kids! This was hard core bingo, complete with old ladies with oxygen tanks, smoke filled rooms, and bingo boards the size of a small child.

When we arrived at the Menominee Casino we were wide eyed and unsure what to do. You would have thought we all had 5 heads the ways these folks were looking at us. We found someone to tell us that we had to get a special card in order to play, which we did. We stood in a very smoke filled room while we all got bingo cards with our names on them. Then we had the tasks of standing in line tyring to figure out what all the options meant. At one point a fairly grumpy old lady informed us that the line was back there, and what did we think we were doing cutting in line. Couldn't we see they were all waiting?(She was sitting at a table that she clearly felt was a line??!!??) Apparently anxiety was already high in the Bingo hall because the computers had recently gone down and they weren't able to sell games in enough time to be able to play warm up games. While we waited in line, a bus arrived with many, MANY older people who had these little pins on-I guess to remind them they'd come on a bus and to identify them?

We decide on what kinds of games we will play, and DP and Man friend walk away with electronic bingo boards, and sister and I have the paper boards. The electronic games I think are for those that want to say they are playing bingo, but really want to pick up a hot lady or man friend while looking about the room. Basically these machines did everything for you, and even beeped and told you to prepare to yell bingo when it was time. Good thing I stuck to the real thing for some authentic bingo experiences.

After looking through my three inch stack of paper games, it was evident that we would need one of those dot maker things--otherwise known as a dauber. Pictured here in case you didn't know what they were. I believe in the world of children, they are also known as Do-A-Dot Art. Clearly this activity was started by seeing some child playing with their great great great grandparents daubers in Florida somewhere! Someone thought "Hey, we could make a mint on this and market it to kids-then they'd already know how to use them in their golden years for bingo!! Anyways, I went and made my selection of a medium size dauber-in purple of course. Sister chose green. Man friend was awarded a FREE dauber since it was his birthday month. You can BET I am going back in December when we are here for Christmas to get my free dauber. It even had a birthday cake and candles depicted on the front. Ah, memories.

Well, finally it was time to get started, and we were playing what is called 9-on, where we had nine games going for each round. There were 27 rounds total, though some were special ones. I swear, I left there with a headache and seeing colored dots floating around the room. It was interesting to watch others play this game. Some came with enough gear to get snowed in for months. Multicolor daubers, little snow globe receipt holder things, coolers of food, smokes--they even served free coffee and soda! I still don't know what you would do with a 10 color selection of daubers, but more power to them.

In the end I left with nothing but a blogging topic, and a better understanding of what was happening in the gym on Friday's when I went to catholic school. My fondest memory of bingo prior to this trip was getting chosen to be the one who was allowed to take my teacher's dollar bill to the gym and buy her a hot dog w/ kraut and mustard every Friday during bingo. I wasn't ever sure why I was chosen to do this, but I remember it fondly.

We stopped off at the slots for good measure with $20. I lost all but $4, but in a last minute decision, I ended up leaving with $21.50.

It was a good day.

(PS--this post was not meant to be offensive in any way. So if you, or your grandparents, great grandparents, or great great great grandparents are a bingo player and felt offended, I am sorry!)

What have I been up to!

Oh so very busy around here. Life with three puppies, a DP, her family, and lots to do has been hectic--but we are having lots of fun.

The other day we went to see DP's sister in Minneapolis--which by the way is really hard to say sometimes, especially with a lack of coffee in your system. It has been known to come out as "Minne-ne-min-opolis" at times. Oh well-much funnier in person! It was a good time. We were able to see the site of the bridge collapse, which consequently is right behind their house a few blocks up. They are doing amazing reconstruction, so you can imagine the traffic concerns still.

Then we went shopping around town. We went to see some tile, glass, and pottery places. I bought a few tiles at this really neat store called Clay Squared and we found some neat numbers for our house. They had to make one of the numbers we needed, so they will ship it all out together which is nice. We won't have to worry about it breaking on our watch! Then we gallivanted around some more. We went to another place called Saint Sabrina's tattoo and piercing place to get my earrings switched out. I got my earring put in there a few years ago when we were visiting and they were really nice--clean, too which is always a plus! While there, I talked with the woman who helped me, who is one of the piercers, and I noticed that she had self-injury scars that were tattooed over. We talked about this a bit, since I was told that I couldn't tattoo over my scars. It was nice to talk to someone-weird as it was at a tattoo place-who was in a good place about her scars. She said she covered them up because it was easier than telling people why she had them in the first place. While there, we also saw a girl--who was CLEARLY in the rebellion phase of her life who declared to us that she was getting her cl** pierced. Hmm, so my lady goes from piercing THAT to working on my ears. I guess the work isn't boring!

We then went to this great store that had all eco friendly home stuff. I can't remember the name of it, but not only did it have great products, but it also had really neat free info you could take. We also went to Bibelot, which is a store that I would spend way too much money in if we had one close to us. Very fun to go to new places and see new fun things!! We were able to get some holiday presents checked off the list. Oh, there was a neato pet store and trendy baby store as well that we were able to get a present in for my little tyke nephew--who is going to be 5 in January--not so little tyke I guess.

OH, REWIND!!

The first day we were there, we went to The Mall of America. For those of you who know me well, you know that I hate malls, and typically hate to shop. You won't believe then when you hear that it was MY idea to go to MOA. I figured I needed at least to say I had been there. Well, we did all three floors-and the first floor twice! We had a good time, a good meal, and I can now say I have been there!

Well, that was that. I have a puppy update in me as well, but I have to take a break. The computer access here is ify, and sometimes really slow. The pictures take a long time to load.

DP's sister is coming to town today with her boyfriend, and they will be here for the weekend. We are going to this large art fest in Green Bay this weekend called Art Street. I am very excited to see what they have to offer, especially the pottery. We will also try our hand at BINGO at the Casino tonight. Should be loads of fun. Maybe we will even do some nickle slots. Always a good time--with our $20 limited stash of cash that is!!

Hope you are all well. Stay tuned for the puppy update!