Life with the Two Crazy Dogs

Happy Memorial day to all whatever that’s left of the day.  It was a three-day weekend for me and it sure didn’t seem like three days.  The days went by so fast.  Yesterday, Sunday, several tornados hit the Midwest.  There was one fatal touched down in Hugo, MN, which is about 55 miles north of where I am.  A child died in that tornado.  Saw the pictures in the news, it is horrifying to see the pictures let alone if you are there to experience it. 

When the storm hit Hugo we (DB, SD BF and I) were getting ready for our dinner of ribs and corn on the cob.  We had the TV in the dining room on to NASCAR Coca Cola 600 (Channel 9) and the TV in the executive office to another local channel where we can watch the weather alert.  Yesterday was the first 80 degree temperature for the year.   We had a thunderstorm the night before, the morning was cool and muggy and when the sun came out, it was just utterly disgusting.  I hate humidity.  No wonder we had bad weather for that day - warm front colliding with the cold front.  Over at our end, all we had was wind and clouds which soon disappeared to clear skies and cool right down around 6 p.m.  

The crabapple tree flowering.  They were really pretty but after yesterdays strong winds, they are all gone. 

Yeah, SD’s baby is still not ready yet.  I sure feel bad for her being so uncomfortable and miserable.  Today is the actual due date.  Tomorrow is the appointment with her doc.  Hopefully he will induce her this week.  My BIL became a grandpa on yesterday.  Her daughter gave birth to a baby boy name Hunter.  I think he was 7 pounds some thing.  Can’t remember the details.  All of us are now waiting SD to pop! 

Today, I was all rested, took the boys out for their walk and baked some granola bars.  Thanks, Gertrude for the recipe.  DB said it’s better than the ones by Nature Valley or Kashi.  Mhmm, I can see this is gonna be an every or every other week thing with different kinds of fruits, nuts and grains.  Then I made a chiffon cake.  What a disaster that was, but still had to keep it in the container.  Can’t waste food, right?  The cake tast good but it hardly rise!!! 

It’s a holiday so there are sales in every store and departmental store you go to.  I have one thing in mind to get since Friday.  It is the new flip flops call FitFlop.  In actual fact, Barb from Little Chumsy’s blog wrote a review on this new wonder flip flops where it supposely stimulate your muscles when you are wearing it.  My boss bought a pair which she loves it.  She said it gives her a better posture when wearing the fitflops.  It also suppose to tone your calfs and thighs muscles and your glutes, too, I think.  In addition, those who have problems with their joints, heels will benefit from this sandals. 

So, I went to Macy’s yesterday afternoon, which is around my neighborhood to get a pair, but na -da.  I have to go to Southdale in Edina.  I went this afternoon, found them but too bad ithey are a little big for my extremely skinny feet.  The length and arch works good but where the strap is way too loose.  In other words, it did not fit snugly.  Very disappointed.  When I tried it on, walked around them I noticed I have better posture, my right heel was not hurting and my knees were pain free. 

Since I couldn’t get what I wanted, I should have left the store, right?  But no, dear me had to walk the shoe section and looked at other shoes on display showing 50%, 60% and if I use the Macy’s card, I will get another 30% off.  Good deal, huh?  Yes it was.  I found a pair of Clark’s instead.  It was 50% off and since I don’t have a Macy’s card, I paid $41+ for the pair of shoes.  I didn’t want to apply for the Macy’s card now but will later when my credit score is more stable.

Here is my Clark’s sandals I bought today. I think it’s the same as my mom’s? Not sure but I’m sure my sis can confirm that and I will be hearing a load from her. She is the queen of “Chaat” this and that.  Another reason why I didn’t take any picture of the disaster chiffon cake!

At least this pair of sandals does not hurt my right heel.

Here are the pictures of our sofa which DB and I bought on Monday, and all the crap, according to DB, we had to go through to make a purchase.

The delivery guys came according to the said time yesterday which made DB super happy coz he was already telling me he will have take time to assemble it.  What a whiner!

The final product all assembled with Ranger as the center of attraction.  As you can see, I didn’t even bothered to iron out the creases.

I have not sat on it for a movie yet let alone take a nap laying on the sofa.  Guess who did???  Yeppers, that King of the house.  He took an hour nap about 2 hours after we had it all set up, plus he even watched Jericho last night when I came out from my office seeing him all stretched out, comfy as ever.  I sure didn’t hear anything from the complaint department!

It was President’s Day, Monday, February 18.  My company had the day off for all, thank you, Mr. CEO.  I slept in which I tend to do now on weekends and on my off days. 

The weather was quite nasty with bone chilling temperatures.  I asked DB if he still wants to have a sofa for our living room.  You see, DB saw a flyer from IKEA that came with all the other city papers on Wednesday of last week, advertising the Prez sales for Ekthorp sofas and others.  He was the one who told me it was a very good buy, and if that was the sofa I wanted.  Yes it was and we left it that way.  No more discussions about making a big purchase till Saturday when we were having our breakfast.  He looked at the flyer and we talked about if we should get one sofa, and actually what we discussed was a corner sofa which comes to the same price, according to him (a few bucks more to be more precised) if we only get the 3-seater and the love seat. 

After much putzing with Facebook and trying to see if we can look into IKEA.com for the corner sofa.  I made up my mind I will buy it and he was up for it “Anything you want, Sug.”  That was his response, and he said maybe we can get it online so there’s no need to fight the crowd at the store.  Tried the online way and it was more expensive just shipping fees alone.

I told him I’m going to IKEA and put the order in and deliver it since home delivery cost $52 compare to $200+ for shipping fees.  He said he will come along too which shock the hell outta me.  He never like going shopping especially on holidays (so-call since it’s not really a “real” holiday).  Off we went to pick up my car from the garage for brake/rotor job and then to IKEA.

That trip to the Swedish mega furniture store was DB’s 2nd time since it was opened back in 2003, I think.  I showed him the 3-seater and loveseat, sat on it and he liked it a lot.  Good, that was what I want to hear!

Next was to look at the corner sofa since he has not seen it.  Right away he said “Nice”.  I walked over to the floor assistant and put my order in for the corner sofa which turned out to be a Cash and Carry item.  Huh?  What the hell was that?  “Take the print out from the floor assistant, pay for it at the cashiers downstairs, walk over to the Pick up Furniture and then to Home Delivery. ”  We walked around the store and after we saw other office furnishings, I could see he was getting antsy. 

If he had told me he doesn’t want to walk the entire store, I would have taken the elevator down to the cashiers and pay for our merchandise.  Nope, he followed me and his face/head was RED.  While standing online waiting for our turn at the register (can’t use Self-Checkout for this item), he received a PIX Text from his daughter - a picture of a puppy.  (You can take a look at the pictures if you are in my Facebook.)   He became so agitated after he flipped his phone off.  He told me he thinks SD bought a puppy.  He replied to her was “You didn’t” and she replied “Yep”.  He was just fuming.  He was saying all kinds of negative things about it like they should wait till the baby is born; in their situation, they should not have bought the puppy;  they will regret it;  guess who will be the dog sitter.  He sent a reply to her saying “you will regret it.”  Man, when he told me that, I told him he shouldn’t have said that.  They are old enough to think what they want.  The chose to have a puppy and if things are not working right, it’s their funeral.   She will be mad at him, which she was.

He was still fuming, and when we paid for our big purchase, we have to walk over to pick our furniture up.  The wait was suppose to be, the longest 10 minutes, but we waited for 30 minutes.  Guess what?  Mr Anti-Shopping was complaining up a storm.  When our number was called, I walked over signed some papers, and the IKEA guy helped us pull the pallet to Home Delivery.  More waiting there and made another payment for delivery, turned around and headed towards the parking bay. 

The moment we were out at the parking aisle, he said, “This is the most stupidiest thing I have ever experience; walked the damn maze just to pay, then the waiting game to pick up the furniture and more waiting.  This must be a Japanese store.”  Well, I wasn’t any nicer to him either.  I told him “Hello!!!!  IKEA is a SWEDISH company.  And too bad, it’s already done deal with, and guess what you will have to answer the phone tomrwhen the delivery guys call tomorrow and you have to set the time for delivery.”  He shut up and I pretty much maxed out my credit card, the biggest purchase (the house does not really count) I have ever made since I have been here.

I should have told him to stay home.  I have to write this down to blow of steam myself.  Pictures of the sofa will be up later….not with me now.

I am thinking of going out for some shopping tomorrow morning.  It has been a while since I went to the mall for any shopping or even window shopping.  The last I was at any mall was the day before I left for my vacation to Malaysia.  Actually I did a lot of shopping 5 months before.  I even did some online shopping which was the best invention ever.  Nadine is one heck of a designer shopping freak.  I suppose I would do the same if I had that kind of money like she has.  She loves to shop online with  Bluefly coupon, so I guess there is no point in asking her if she wants to go shopping with me tomorrow morning.  

Today’s mail filled up the entire mailbox, and that was according to DB.  I was expecting a CD which my sis ordered and some of my other stuff I ordered from Amazon.com.  DB said he needed to bring a shopping cart for all the mail.  I didn’t take a picture of the pile of mail sitting on the dining table.  The moment I saw them, I opened them up: 2 books, my CDs, sis’ CD, DVDs, piano books and 6 pieces of junk mail.  I’m still waiting for more items from Amazon.  They are actually gifts for my trip home next month.  They are shiping them separately when stock arrives.  I am really enjoying shopping online.  Why??  I have been using the online coupons since I found out about them writing paid posts.

So, this is not a sponsored post!  I’m writing this post because the coupons codes really do work.  Of course, you have to look for those that are not expired.  I order a bunch of Victoria’s Secret stuff for my sis, and used the coupon codes and received a 10% off plus free shipping.  Sweet deal.

DB sent me this website on Friday, told me to check it out.  He sent it to me at 2:15 p.m. when I was trying to get my reports done, I clicked on the link once and didn’t have the time to read through the verbiage.  I was actually trying to bust my butt to  get stuff done since I was wasting my time chatting online with Simmie and then with my neighbor for an hour.  Payback time!

I asked DB what the hell was that, he replied “A new style car.”  My reply was “As long as it’s free, I will take it.” You know what his response was: “Not this one, major coffin on wheels!!!!!!!!!”

This weekend went by quick and I was busy, too.  I met up with Simmie at Ikea on Friday afternoon.  We were already chatting via Gmail Chat on Friday morning and she mentioned she is going to Ikea, I was “I want to go, too!!”  I have not seen her since late June before she left for KL.  It was nice to see her again.  We had our early dinner and then shopped.  I know we had a blast.  As usual we were chatting from the moment we met till we left the parking grounds.  When I got home, had some left overs with DB and told him what sofa I want to buy from Ikea.  He said, “Go for it.”  Sounds so easy! 

Then I was on the phone with Moonlight_Tears for almost 2 hours!!  Couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the time when we hung up.  It was a great pleasure to chat with you, Nicole!

Simmie and I met again on Saturday.  We were supposed to meet up with Nicole for some Dim Sum, but she couldn’t make it.  I’m sure the three of us will get a chance to meet.  So, Simmie and I went to Minneapolis Farmers’ Market.  I bought a bunch of veggies and fruits.  I gave my self a $30 budget, shucks, I withdrew $50 and bought almost $40 worth of goods.  

For lunch we went to Jasmine Deli and had Vietnamese noodles.  I’m a noodle freak, so any noodles will work fabulously for me.  The green tea bubble drink was good and so was the grilled pork sandwich.  I bought two of the sandwiches home for dinner, DB loved it.  He said he could eat another one of it.  Now I know what to get him.
After lunch, we went to United Noodles for some mooncakes and I bought more groceries.  Got back to her place and sorted our groceries, split the cakes, picked up my stuff I tumpang her to get for me at St Michael’s, KL.  Once I got home, I went grocery shopping at Cubs and hung out at Satay-2-Go for a bit chatting with the lady boss, Corrine.  By the night was over, I was beat.

Mooncake from United Noodles

Some of the loot from the farmers’ market: corn, cherry tomatoes, and Thai chilies.  Not in picture are cherries, onions and shallots, green beans.

Morning came and was woken up by the furry alarm clock Ranger.  Cooper trained Ranger well.  It used to be Cooper’s duty, and I presumed Ranger picked it up from Coops.  So Coops now is the big boss, just lays there and Ranger does the duties.  Actually Ranger is getting very daring.  He never was that noisy, nosy and boisterous.  Anyways, we love it that he is enjoying his new family.

OK, back to the updates, boys and I went for our walk, and when I came home, I was on the phone with Simmie.  After I was done on the phone, I got lazy!!  Wanted to bathe the boys, but I putzed around looking through the flyers, chatting with DB and had lunch.  Vacuumed and cleaned the bathrooms, and then I went to Corrine’s for the rest of the afternoon.  By the time I got back at 6:45 p.m., had dinner and made some dinner for the week, I was past 8 o’clock.  Time just zoomed by when we are having fun.  Folded some grocery bags and I called it a night.  I was wiped! 

Today is a start of another same-old, same-old work week.

I asked DB if he like animal print bedding for our master bedroom.  He gave me the look like “Are you okay?”  Some days I can be nuts.  I mean it will not be that bad if I get those leopard prints as they are much kinda to the eyes.  I do not mean to get those zebra or giraffe prints as they are a little too much for me.  I told him these animal print beddings will be a nice change to our usual navy blue, taupe, green, and some kind of reddish sheets we have.  His response was, “Let me think about it.”  So much for being a wild animal!