Weekend Review

I'm just a few days late - but I've had a busy start to the week! But without further ado - here's my weekend recap.
Saturday morning was the season's first farmer's market so I decided to venture out with Henry. Last year I brought Wilson pretty frequently and he always seemed to have a good time, but I knew it was going to be busy and way crowded and didn't want to end up having to carry him. At almost 6 months, Henry is still small enough to be carried for long periods of time, and he hasn't ever been to the farmer's market, so I decided to bring him along. And he was a big hit, of course. Everyone stopped to pet him and get kisses and tell me how cute he is and how much they love pugs and when they can get a dog they want to get a pug, and how Aunt so-and-so has one and she just loves it so much. He ate up all the attention, which was nice because Wilson is a little more anti-social, and tends to offer up a polite sniff when presented with a strange hand. By the end of our two hour excursion, Henry was resting his head on my shoulder trying to catch a quick nap. We got home, retrieved Wilson from the bedroom where he was napping with Aaron, and the three of us napped on the couch for awhile.
Later in the evening, I headed to a friends place, planning on going to a subjective circus, which was a theatrical event with live music, plays, break dancing, fire juggling and circus food to support a local art studio. It ended up being rainy and cold, so we instead stayed in and chatted and watched a movie. The movie we ended up watching was Shortbus - if you've heard of it, you know. If you haven't, feel free to IMDB it because I'm not comfortable discussing knowing there are underage puggies reading. Suffice it to say - it was really very good, and was not about mentally handicapped children, as the name might infer. It was by the same director as Hedwig and The Angry Itch. After Shortbus, we started watching Savages with Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman and it was also really very good, but I started falling asleep about halfway through and ended up going home to bed.
Sunday morning I got up and ran to Lowe's to get geraniums for Aaron's mom and tomato plants for mine. We went to my parent's first, and had dinner and sat outside watching my 3 year old nephew chase Henry and Wilson. Later in the evening we went to Aaron's parents and had ice cream. Aaron's mother collects antiques and has thousands and always has new additions to show me. This week she had a 3 tier table that looked like a 3 tier cake display, only 4 feet tall, as well as a couple pieces of painted china and a painting. She gets a lot of stuff from garage sales, but also does auctions and a little bit of ebay. I can't imagine people selling these treasures, but I suppose after years of watching something collect dust, you just want to get rid of it and don't bother looking at how much its actually worth. Aaron's dad always jokes that the house itself would be assessed for less than half the price of all the junk in it.
I also got my stimulus check! Whoo hoo! I plan on putting it towards college loans - what about you guys? Are you being good Americans and using it to stimulate our economy?

Anybody need a couch?

Last night I was fortunate enough to meet two wonderful ladies staying with some friends of mine through couchsurfers.com. Are you familiar with this site? Basically you can advertise your couch, and look for other people's couches to stay on, all over the world. Sounds pretty crazy, right? I thought so. And then I met these ladies and checked out the site, and I'm really impressed with the whole idea. On one hand, its a little scary to think about sleeping on a complete strangers couch, and even more scary to think about one sleeping on yours. On the other hand, I think the site itself does a good job of attracting like minded people - those who love to travel, want to really experience a city rather than see the tour bus version, and are willing to, and actually WANT to have people from all over the world sleep on their couch. The women staying with my friends were so interesting and had such great stories to tell about their travels, and different characters who had stayed with them. They also had some words of advice for the savvy traveler, such as - mainly for other women - not to stay alone with an Italian guy, because they seem to have selective hearing when it comes to "No". The website has a great voucher system, where people who have actually stayed with you or people you have stayed with can write a reference for you, and rate the experience from "extremely positive" on down. That way you can search for only people who have only extremely positive ratings, or people that have several references. To me, the idea is really almost revolutionary. To open your doors to a stranger, and offer such hospitality, is really a lost art in America, and that's really unfortunate. I think we've allowed our fear to obliterate basic human kindness, from stopping to help someone change a flat to offering your couch to a traveler. I don't know that staying with strangers is going to change our fearful society, but it seems like a good start. The more good experiences people have, the more they'll travel, and share their experiences, and trust people and trust life, and trust, like fear, spreads.

The 5 Meme - Modified

Alright, since I still haven't finished my LA/Coachella post, I'll do another meme! And make yet another promise to have that post up this weekend! Really!


1. What were you doing 5 years ago today? I was a manager at Jimmy John's and living with my friend Melody. I don't know what exactly I was doing on this particular day, but it probably included working, and maybe doing the dark side of the rainbow thing. I did a lot of that in those days. Its so weird! For the first 45 minutes of the movie, it totally coincides with Dark Side Of The Moon! And who figured this out? Is there a group of people putting movies and albums together? Because I want to get into that.

2. Name 5 snacks that you love:

1. Chocolate shakes from the local ice cream shoppe called Snookies
2. Honey Latte from Starbucks (is a drink a snack? I have too many of these, weekly)
3. Cinnamon Buns from Ben & Jerrys. Lord is this good ice cream
4. Creme Brulee from B & J. Again - amazing ice cream
5. Half Baked from B & J. I could really go on an ice cream diet. I love all things ice cream

3. What are 5 things on your ‘To-Do’ list for today/ Or things you’ve already done today:

1. Pick up the house
2. Do the dishes
3. Put laundry away
4. Stop and pick up a bottle of the Jose Cuervo variety drink mix
5. Get ready for my Wii MarioKart party!

4. Name 5 things you would do if you won five million dollars: $5mil is a lot of money!

1. Buy a house. Actually, an old house here in Iowa that I can fix up, and also condos in various other international locales
2. Start a pug rescue
3. Give money to family and start a college fund for my nephew
4. Invest invest invest!
5. Buy a car. But not a Fit, because I'm already irritated by how the parking spaces they take up still look like available places until you've started to turn in

5. Name 5 bad habits you have: Only 5 huh? You guys are optimistic!

1. I'm lazy, and therefore don't exercise. Ever.
2. I'm a pretty shabby housekeeper in general - dishes, laundry, dog toys, various bits of dog destruction ie toilet paper, toy stuffing, couch and pillow stuffing
3. I bite my nails sometimes
4. I'm reeeeeally bad about calling people back, and answering my phone at all. Text me!
5. I'm the most un-self-motivated person I know. Probably related to the laziness.

5A. I'm going to add one - now that I'm feeling like a cow pie with all my bad habits. Things I really enjoy about me, and about being me!

1. I'm an eternal optimist, without even trying. My mind automatically sees the best in all things, people, places, and situations.
2. Once I locate those good qualities, I start earnestly trying to bring them out, so everyone else sees what I see.
3. I really enjoy helping people
4. Although I'm not a huge fan of individual physical qualities, I'm really starting to like the way they all fit together
5. I really love my cute little house, and my perfect (in their own way) puggies, and the fact that its Spring!

6. Name 5 places you’ve lived:

1. Altoona, IA
2. Winterset, IA
3. Orange City, IA
4. Omaha, NE
5. Des Moines, IA

7. Name 5 jobs you’ve had:

1. Sandwich Artist at Subway
2. Manager at Jimmy Johns
3. Hotel front desk person
4. Collections
5. Home Mortgage

And now here's another 5 - pictures of my boys!

I'm currently working on my LA trip post, and should have it up tonight or tomorrow (I promise!) but in the meantime, here's a photo memoir meme from Lex - Sleepy Pug Edition

Henry - Lavish licker who loves his brother

Wilson - Lazy lover lets loving brother lick

And I have no idea who hasn't been tagged - probably most everyone - so anyone who hasn't done one yet! I tag you!