Life with the Three Crazy Dogs

…was going by too quickly for me.  I have been slacking a lot on my blog and let alone Facebook.  I am not doing much with Wordsraper either.  Wordscraper is the other version of Scrabulous.  Scrabulous was taken down for a few days due to some patented legal stuff going on between the creators of Scrabulous and Hasbro, the owners of Scrabble.  So the Scrabulous creators worked on re-designing Scrabulous and it became Wordscraper.  It still works the same but with this new application, the person starting the new game is able to create their own rules.

Simmie came over this weekend which was really nice.  A nice break from my every weekend crap I do i.e. cleaning, bathe the boys, dusting and all the fun stuff that needs to be cleaned.  She and I chatted till midnight.  If I wasn’t yawning my head out, I would have stayed up with her and continued on our chitter-chatter.  Our malaysian accents/slang were flying out from our mouths.  DB said the dining room was flooded with Malaysian accents, the Manglish.  Of course la, two Malaysians, hang out together, that is the only time to practice our Manglish, ma!!  Good thing he is cool enough to speak to me with all the la’s too the next day .

Both Simmie and I went to Eden Prairie’s  Costcos, a very nice place compare to Sams.  Sams is getting to be so filthy and very “chaap”.  I was comparing the prices between the two places of the items I usually buy.  Some of the items are cheaper and some a little tad bit more.  What I like is at Costcos, there are more organic stuff and best of all there’s Caribou’s Obsidian coffee beans.  I told DB about Costcos carrying Caribou Obsidian, he was wild about getting it from there.  It is cheaper by the pound.  And yes, Simmie got me a membership card, she being the primary cardholder.  She is just so SUHWEET!!!  Thanks, Simmie!  I can see me going to Costco in the coming weeks.

And from Costco’s we went to Albertville Outlet mall which was on the way to St Cloud for Simmie.  It was my first time to the outlet mall.  It is a great place to shop.  I almost went into each and every store, look see, look see.  The only two stores I bought anything was Banana Republic, a pair of shorts and Aeropostles.  Aero is the only place now I can find pants that fit me.  Yep, I needed new pants, coz my size pants went up.  I blamed it on having an office job, sitting 8 hours a day, widening the butt.  I have to say I didn’t pretty good with this shopping trip.  The prices at the outlet are factory prices.  Going into the Coach and Nine West stores was definitely a will-power challenger.  I so wanted to get a Coach bag or a wallet.  The price for a handbag is $108 and the wallet thingy is $39.  Where can you find such great prices?  Nope, didn’t get anything in there.  Same with Nine West.  Always love their shoes and boots.  Nope didn’t get one and good thing they ran out of the size I want.  If not I would have bought the pair of boots.

And that’s the weekend which brings the start of the work week again……  I need a vacation.  can’t wait for this coming weekend.  I will have to take a trip to St Paul to visit the State Fair.  It ends Sept 4 on Labor Day.  Fair food here I come.

This week’s PhotoHunt got me wondering, looking all over the house, closet, office and the car and finally something struck my melon.  There’s always a piece of a wrinkled item in the linen drawer.  Yes, the bedsheets.  Once they come out from the dryer, they are folded and go straight into the drawer and when it’s time to change new sheets, this is what the sheet looks like and no, I don’t iron my sheets.  I’m that lazy.

Time really flys by for me, the older I get, the faster time zoomed by.  Why didn’t time fly quicker when I was a kid or teenager?  It’s already mid August and this Thursday is the start of the Great Minnesota Get Together, the State Fair.  I might go this year since I will be taking time off again to burn my vacation during the Labor Day weekend which is usually the last day of the fair.  School reopens after Labor Day.  Traffic is always heavier during school terms.  Wow, where did the time go to? 

I have decided not to register for any classes this fall.  The reason I’m flat broke and just cannot afford to use my savings.  Darn, tuition fees are so expensive now.  I know my boss will understand my situation, coz I have added fall classes on my goals and objectives.  It will probably take me another 4 years to complete my 2-year degree.  How pathetic! :(

Speaking of time, this little missy is growing like a weed.  Her hair is turning red, sure looks like it, doesn’t it?  DB was sitting her on Monday.  She was very cranky, fighting her sleep but drinks her milk like she’s drinking water.  She is still very smiley and yap a lot when we put her down to change her.  She is still drooling a lot which makes us think she is teething.  I’m waiting for my coworker to bring in her Baby Einstein DVDs she bought when she had her babies.  I’m sure it will keep this little missy occupy.

One event I missed out (on Sunday, August 17) and actually the first I have heard of since I came to MN is the Japanese Lantern Lighting Festival out in Como Park.  It is an annual event where Corrine will open a stall selling her famous bakeries, soba noodles and drinks.  I wanted to go so bad but I had so much to do at home, my usual cleaning day and bathing day for Ranger (I still bathe Ranger every week because of his allergies).  I was debating about til the clock hit 7 p.m. and I finally told myself I’m not going since I know if I go I won’t get home till 10 or 11 because I know I want to spend time with Corrine, Tammy,  and all the rest.  Next year will be a must for me, I will take the next day, Monday, off. 

This week’s Photohunt theme is Colorful.   Here is the picture of the colorful crystal flowers found on the lobby ceiling of the Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas.  Not very good pictures of them but at least I got them for memory sake.

Our carpets in our house were almost brand new when we moved in.  The former owners replaced new carpets 4 years ago and maintained them very well.  When we saw the house we knew they have cats (the main reason why they had to replace their carpet) but their cats did not leave any mess at all.  Moreover, they had some home improvements to the kitchen and main bath, back hallway and the entryway.  They installed tiles on these floors which helped make cleaning much easier.  And the Berber carpeting in the basement is durable, very tough looking where the dogs have been romping downstairs most of the time when it’s hot upstairs and the carpet is still holding together, still looks good.  Any carpeting needs to be shampooed, well, so does  the Berber downstairs. 

Now that we are in this house for over 2 years, we can see the carpet needs to be replaced in some rooms.  The carpets in our house are cleaned at least 5 times a year especially where there are heavy traffic like entrances where the dogs go in and out and even with a rug/mat over the carpet, the carpet will still get dirty from the dust and any particulars they have under their paws.  If we were to replace our carpets upstairs, I would rather get rid of the carpet and replace them with laminate flooring from Empire Today. 

The reason why I want to pick laminate flooring is because it will be more versatile than the carpets we have when we have 3 dogs in the house.  Like I have said earlier, these dogs are not as clean as they look.  They do roll on the grass, bringing in the dust, dirt on them into the house.  If I want to get laminate flooring, I would get the hardwood laminating style flooring which looks exactly like a regular hardwood floors and cost much cheaper.  Moreover, with regular hardwood floors, they are easier scratched up by the dogs’ nails.  This happened to our hardwood floors when we were living in the rented home.  Once they are scratched up, it is hard to get rid of the scratches no matter how much we polished them.

I do hear commercials from Empire Today almost every day on TV where it says you can order them today and Empire Today will install them for you tomorrow.   They will have their sales rep over to your house, goes through what you want and provide all the suggestions they have for your home flooring installations.  The very next day their installation guys will be at your home to install them.  If anyone who would like to get more reference stories about Empire Today’s services, you can check out Empire Carpet Stories which inspired me to contact Empire Today for my next carpet or flooring installation.