Oh, internets!  What would I do without you?

I just wanted to say thanks for all of your kind comments, tweets, and e-mails this week.  It has really been a tough week, but it was so nice to come home and find my inbox full of your thoughtfullness.  I apologize for not responding to you, but I know that you understand that I was a bit preoccupied.  Thanks for being there for me and mine this week.  You guys are all fabulous and are the #1 reason that I love the internet!

Ted’s dad is doing as well as can be expected for someone who has just had a stroke.  He is out of the ICU and is busy with all sorts of Speech, OT, and PT for the time being.  Eventually he will move out of the hospital and to a rehab facility.  It will be a long hard road, but he definitely still has his wits about him so we’re very hopeful.

Again, thanks for being there for us!

Ted’s car needed $1800 in repairs.

I found out that my dad has to have radiation again…this time on his neck.

Ted’s dad had a stroke.

Life — Suck it.

Yup.  I have a boyfriend.  We see each other about once a week, sometimes more.  It all depends on how many times I go to Target that week.  You see, my boyfriend is a Target Boyfriend.

Don’t act so surprised.  Target has everything you could ever want, so naturally that includes boyfriends.

It all started when I needed to get an eye exam.  I had new insurance so I couldn’t go back to my previous doctor.  When I saw that Target Optical was covered, I head out to my SuperTarget to see about scheduling an exam.  Target Boyfriend was there and scheduled my apointment.  That was our first meeting.  He spelled my last name wrong.

He was there again when I went for my exam.  Again when I picked up my glasses.  He was there when I called about a problem with my glasses.  And again when I had to return my glasses for a second time because they still weren’t right.  Sometimes I wonder if he didn’t screw up my glasses on purpose just so he could become my Target Boyfriend.

Now I see him occasionally when I’m checking out.  He waves, says hi, or comments on how frequently I come to Target.  He even talks to me when Ted is around, though I’ve asked him not to because I don’t want to advertise m Target Boyfriend to my husband!

It’s that that he hot or particularly charming.  He’s just there…all the time.  And I’m there…all the time.  It works for us.

Do you have a Target Boyfriend?

Rufus has had the same kennel since he was a puppy.  He is one of those dogs that loves his kennel.  He sleeps in there every night….and fairly frequently during the day.  Now that he’s a big boy dog who doesn’t chew things up (remind me to tell you all about the towel poop incident sometime) he even has a cuddly bed to sleep on inside his kennel.

For a while now, Ted and I have noticed that Rufus seems a little big for his kennel.  We never bothered to get him a new one, though, because he always seemed so happy cuddled up inside.  Lately, though, Rufus has been sending a new message.  Frequently, we find him lounging out in Kaya’s kennel, which is considerably bigger than his.  And, of course, he hints at his desire for a new kennel in his own special way:

Where do our other puppy friends sleep?  Smalls, Kaya, Ben, Bailey, Foxy, & Zapp

I’m lucky that my dogs don’t generally beg for food.  They are really good about leaving us alone while we eat, which is especially nice since we are bums who eat on the couch.  There is one exception to this rule, however, and that is popcorn.

Ted likes to make himself some popcorn for an evening snack (so does my dad…spooky).  As soon as he sits down with his bowl of popcorn, both dogs are sitting at attention at his feet.  Popcorn is the only type of people food we allow our dogs to have, so they really like to work it for their popcorny treat.

Kaya even has a special, “Please give me popcorn,” face that she likes to make.  We call these her Dobby ears, and they only appear when popcorn is on the line:

How could you resist this little face?  We can’t, which is why she ends up getting her coveted piece of popcorn.

How do our other puppy friends get what they want?  Smalls, Rufus, Ben, Bailey, Foxy, and Zapp

I apologize for my lame posts and inability to comment on blogs as of late.  This past week was my first official week back at work.  Even without kids, it was a lot to handle.  Here are the highlights (and the lows too):

• Monday started out in typical back to school style with district-wide institute days.  Boring and a complete waste of time as always.  Though, I did look cute.
• Monday night we had the wake for Ted’s grandmother followed by the funeral on Tuesday.  A very nice service, but an exhausting day.  Tuesday night I had an informational meeting for our Daisy Girl Scout troop.
• Wednesday I spent dealing with the drama I had missed on Tuesday where my boss offered up my technology position to the rest of the staff without even talking to me about it first.  I’m over it now.  And I still have the position.
• Thursday was our program-wide institute day.  Also boring, but the girls and I managed to be productive without actually listening to the speakers.
• Friday was for setting up the room and home visits.  I was so exhausted when the week was over that I went to bed at 8:15 and didn’t wake up until 10 a.m. on Saturday morning.
• Saturday I slept in, then took a long afternoon nap.
• Sunday we went grocery shopping, I took my birth control pill off of auto-refill, and we finally saw The Dark Knight.  Love Christian Bale.  Hate the Batman voice.

What’s been going on with all of you?  I’m sure you told me in your blog posts, but it might have been on the day that I had to “mark all as read” or cry.

All right, I know this might seem like a cop out to some of you, but it was my first week back at school, and there was no way I was going to have the time or energy make anything snazzy.  Since I love chicken salad, but hate how much mayo most places use, I decided to try making it myself.  I actually didn’t follow a recipe, but here’s what went into it:

1 can of chicken
2 stalks of celery
a wee bit of mayo because I like a dry chicken salad
salt, pepper, paprika, garlic salt, crushed red pepper
I think that was it

Just mash up the chicken add your ingredients and season to taste. Put it on a warm, crusty roll with some provolone cheese and, voila:

Was the recipe easy to follow?

Yes, because there was no recipe.  I just bullshitted my way through this.  Maybe I should call this Bullshit Chicken Salad.

Did the dish taste good?

Oh yeah!  Super yummy.

Would I make this dish again?

Yup!  I plan on taking this for lunch all next week!

Enjoy!

So, you know that fence that Rufus loves so much?  Well, we just got the bill for the second half of our payment.  Funny thing is — they misspelled both our last name AND the street we live on.  In my mind that means I shouldn’t have to pay this bill.  I don’t know who Ted ______y is, and I don’t live on that street.

Instead, I edited my bill.  I crossed out the extraneous letters and fixed the misspelled street name.  And then I wrote, “Bill get paid faster when the post office can find us.”

I told you I was feeling snarky!

When we bought our house, we were excited at the prospect of having a fenced backyard.  Of course, when we looked at the house, there was 2 feet of snow on the ground, so we didn’t really get a close up look at our white picket fence.  Unfortunately, when we moved in, we discovered that it was more of a rotting wood fence than anything else.  One of the gates no longer worked because the wood was too rotten to hold the screws. There wasn’t much we could do to repair it, especially after we discovered just how much Rufus liked to gnaw on rotting wood.

So, we saved our pennies and got a pretty new aluminum fence:

Rufus seems to approve.  He likes how he can actually see through to the other side!  (Please don’t look at the dirt and the weeds.  We’re working on it.  I swear!)

What do our other puppy friends see when they look out onto the world?  Smalls, Kaya, Ben, Bailey, Foxy, & Zapp

While Kaya is a momma’s girl through and through, she occasionally admits to loving her daddy too.

She is tricky to cuddle.  Even in this picture, she is desperate to get up and run in circles!

I’d love to write more, but between today being my first day back at work, the wake for Ted’s grandmother tonight, the funeral tomorrow, and my first official girl scout meeting tomorrow night — well, I’m spent people!

Be sure to visit our other puppy friends — Smalls, Rufus, Ben, Bailey, Foxy, and Zapp