The Dog Park

I just noticed I haven't posted since we got our French Bulldog puppy, "Daly," last weekend! He is just the sweetest boy! Potty training has been a handful though! He's... stealthy. Lol. He has been my constant companion coming to work with me almost every day. He loves to meet people and is very submissive to people. He is still learning proper greetings around other dogs though. He becomes very dominant and alpha-dog unless corrected. We took him to the dog park today so he could practice meeting other dogs and perhaps get some exercise. He did surprisingly well! We kept him on leash for the first 10 minutes or so since he was a little nervous and it was his first time around so many other dogs. Eventually we felt comfortable letting him loose once he saw how much fun the other dogs were having! Soon after he was running full speed ahead (which isn't nearly as fast as the other dogs with his stocky build, lol) chasing other dogs, being chased, and playing with frisbees and tennis balls! Needless to say he's been sleeping the rest of the day, in fact he fell asleep in the car on the way home. I forgot the camera so we didn't get any pictures.:-( Once Daly started to play with the other dogs, Steve and I looked at eachother and both said at the same time, "we should have brought the camera!"
The dog park we took him to was really nice too. It has two huge separate fenced-in areas for small and large dogs. There are trees, grass, and sandy areas for dogs that like to dig! There is also a small agility course.
I can't wait to take him again on the next nice day we get!

Dad-Gummed Auto Correct!

The auto correct on my iPhone and iPad drives me crazy! I was recently posting a comment on The Pioneer Woman's blog, and the auto correct when I entered my web address corrected my site to be located at bloodspot.com instead of blogspot.com. Gross! You would think Steve Jobs could think up an app so that the iGadgets could differentiate when they are being inappropriate. I about grossed out an entire blogging community.
Luckily, I noticed it before I hit "Submit."
Phew.

Iced Over

The weather-man said we were going to get 4-8 inches of snow (Lies!). We got more like 1 inch of snow but a lot of ice. This was somewhat disappointing. I expected to be able to run out in it (and NOT break my neck going down our front steps) and make snow angels and snowmen and send pictures to all my California family and friends who would then be insanely jealous of our good fortune here in good ol' Alabama (the Southern drawl squeaks out sometimes... sorry). But, because of the ice and Alabama's lack of salt and sand trucks, the whole state has shut down. Major roads and freeways are closed. schools and businesses are closed. And my family in Wisconsin (who regularly sees several inches if not FEET of snow every year) is laughing at our silly state for wigging out over a little ice and an inch of snow.
I am starting to feel the effects of a little bit of cabin fever, since we haven't left the house since Saturday night. (I'm antsy anyway with our upcoming trip to Mississippi next weekend to pick up our PUPPY!) :-)Steve took a look at our driveway and instead of walking back to the house, slid back down the driveway. It's a regular skating rink right now!
Please, please. Don't tell me what the temperature is in California.

A special shout-out to my good friend Heather for inspiring me to blog again by starting a new blog of her own, Life As I Know It. http://pinkleopardandbows.blogspot.com/

Busiest. Day. Everrrrr.

Work today was hectic. No lunch for anyone today. We had a fully booked morning and a fully booked afternoon as well as 5 anesthetic procedures and a host of dropped off pets to be seen. I was so exhausted when I got home I had a bagel and half of a pint of Ben & Jerry's for dinner. Straight outta the carton. Yeah, I said it! Then I painted my fingers and toes some cool silver color that ended up being free from Ulta and now my fingers remind me of some kind of weird space suit from some bad 50's alien movie. It's AWESOME!
Ttyl,
Hilabee

Random Clicking

Ever have those times where you get online and start randomly clicking and find something amusing and then wonder, "how did I get to this?" Well, today, somehow, I got from the Pioneer Woman blog to this: (It took a little while to load for me, but its worth it!)

Enjoy!


<3 Hilabee

Oh The Thunder and Rain

We had a thunderstorm this afternoon. I love thunderstorms! I could also see flashes of lightning while I was sitting in the living room so I opened the front door and just watched and listened to the down pour through the storm door. I only had the radio on in the house so I turned it real low. I watched the way the rain drops make circles in the puddles they land in. And how pretty it looks when the water drips off the bare trees. And I listened to the thunder and thought how maybe it's God's stomach growling... And I thought about how the lightning reminds me of a camera flash. I just took a deep breath and stopped to enjoy it. Usually I just curse the rain and hope it stops soon. But today, it felt refreshing, and I knew it was watering the trees, and who doesn't like trees? Anyway, I'd encourage you to stop and enjoy it next time it rains. And wear your golashes if you have to go anywhere!
<3 Hilabee

The Wal-Mart.

Out here there are not just Wal-Marts and Targets. There are Super Wal-Marts and Super Targets. These “Supers” are regular Wal-Marts and Targets that have groceries in addition to all the other regular junk they carry. They have produce, meat, dairy, everything. And they tend to be less expensive than other grocery stores. But I have discovered that I hate them. And here’s why:
1. They do not have baggers. Never underestimate the value of your neighborhood grocery store bag-boy or girl. They expedite the bagging process and get you out of the store in a jiffy. They don’t have baggers at the “Supers.” The cashier has to scan, sort, and bag all your groceries as well as countless other things you picked up that you don’t really need from the non-grocery area of the store (because Wal-Marts and Targets are prime impulse-buy territory). Side note: I once had a checker at Super Target and her name was AquaNetta. No joke. Anyway, needless to say, when you are one-stop shopping in one of these “Supers,” the number of items in your cart can be quite high. So, mathematically, increased number of items to purchase – a bag boy or girl = you waiting for 20 minutes while the checker scans/bags your items. And people behind you become impatient. And they huff and puff and go to other lines. (I’m guilty of this.)
2. They suck at line-management. This is especially bad at Wal-Marts. There are 500 people in line at 3 check stands. Do they open any more check stands? No. And because of the lack of baggers, the lines move slower than a snails pace. I think more time was spent actually waiting in line than collecting my items for purchase.

Recently, I discovered that there is a standard Wal-Mart grocery store near our house. It’s a Wal-Mart. But it’s just a grocery store. It’s missing what makes it “Wal-Mart” in the first place: all the junk that regular Wal-Marts sell. Anywho, I decided to go see if it was any better than the “Supers,” and to my surprise, it was much less crowded with shorter lines. When I had finished my shopping and was walking up to find a check out line, a checker was standing by her check stand waiting for someone to check. She said “Hey! Over here!” And so I went over there and she proceeded to unload my groceries from my cart. When I went around to help her, she said “no, no, I got this, you stay over there.” I thought, “wow, how nice!” Then she checked and bagged all my groceries (still no baggers here, but it wasn’t so bad with the shorter lines) and get this: she tied the handles of all my bags for me. Without me asking her to. This is something that I do anyway when I load my bags into my trunk to keep stuff from rolling out of the bags. I told her that was very nice of her because I was going to do it outside, and she said it’s so cold outside she likes to do it so people don’t have to. (<:-0!!!!!  my look of astonishment) She even chatted with me the entire time she was bagging my groceries, saying that even though tying the bag handles lowers her check times, she doesn’t care because it helps people. What a nice girl! I almost want to write a letter. 

The Birmingham Zoo

I made a trip out to the Birmingham Zoo last week, and invited Ashley and her two little ones, Summer (2 yrs) and Dylan (7 months). It was only in the mid 20’s that day, but it was sunny (and half-price admission day- what a bargain!) so we all bundled up and headed over there.
Because the majority of the animal enclosures are outdoors and the day was so frigid, I’d say 75% of the outdoor enclosures had no animals in them. Some of the larger animals (lions, tigers, and pigs, oh my! I bet you thought I was going to say bears…) were still out for us to see. Of course the animals with indoor enclosures were there too. Indoor animals included reptiles, small predators, and smaller monkeys. Summer said she wanted to see a tiger the most, so we went to find a tiger and this guy is what we found:

Isn’t he noble?


Majestic?


Beautiful!?!? It had been so long since I had been to a zoo and seen a tiger up close, I had forgotten how large and powerful (and did I mention beautiful?) they are.

And then, in another area of the zoo, we found this guy:


He was just as interesting to watch, and I could have stayed there all day.

We also found some cheeky little zebras that were horsing around (a-hardy-har-har!) and kicking up dust and play-bucking:

We especially enjoyed watching the squirrel monkeys, and I was so mesmerized by them that I forgot to take pictures of them. :-(
Squirrel monkeys are smaller than most monkeys, they are about the size of a small cat I’d say, and are so interesting to watch! They play, jumping on each other, from branch to branch, pulling each other’s tails, digging in the dirt, it was crazy! They were native in Costa Rica when I was there on a family vacation a few years ago, and they were just as silly as I’d remembered.
Then there was this guy, just wandering around the zoo, and I had to wonder, what keeps him from running away???


Anyway, they were also doing a lot of construction so Ashley and I agreed that we will make another trip over there in the spring before schools let out for the summer so it’s not too hot/crowded.

Superbowl

Oh yes, it's coming. Dont even know which teams are going yet, but I'm looking forward to it. (I'm secretly wishing it will be the Chargers and the Saints, since my Packers blew it in OT last weekend.)
Last night I suggested to Steve that we have Super Bowl at our house, and have the guys from his office over with their repective spouses/significant others/children. He agreed it was a good idea.
Thinking it would be fun to have people over, now today I'm realizing what this Super Bowl party could entail. Now, since I would like to invite all these people into our home, I figure I also have to feed and entertain them, I guesssssss... ;-) But I've never entertained except for helping my mom and stepmom from time to time. Heck, I own one platter. Now that I'm thinking about it, if everyone comes, it could include as many as 15-20 people. Now I'm thinking, "what are people going to eat off of?" [We're going to have to be paper-platin' it, which I figure is ok for an afternoon of football-watching] Then, "what am I going to serve?" [Could do pizza and wings, but that's liable to get very expensive very quickly not to mention a little dicey with Super Bowl Sunday being one of the highest grossing days for the pizza industry. (I worked pizza for a couple years...)] So, I could throw together a shmorgasport (sp? lol) of food and hope it turns out yummy, but then I thought, "what am I going to serve all this food on?" [Hence, the realization that I own one platter.] So, If I do end up serving home-made food, I'll probably have to invest in a couple more serving dishes. (Darn!)

Anyone have good ideas for yummy football food that is easy to prepare and can feed alot of people?

More blog posts to come, I promise! :-)

<3 Hilabee

Happy New Year

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday! Steve and I did. New Years Eve we went out with Sgt Morgan and his wife, Ashley, and Gunnery Sgt ("Gunny") to a bar to see a country band play. Ashley and I were sad there was no room for line dancing. We were even more sad when one of the band members told us there aren't anymore places in the Birmingham area to even go line dancing. :-(
I am officially (to Social Security) a Mrs. and got my name changed! I went to the Social Security office last week and thinking I would have to wait all day, I got there at about 8:45 am, 15 mins after they opened. I walked in, checked in, sat down, my number was called, and I walked out of the building at approximately 9:07 am. Yes, it took me less than 30 mins to take care of business at Social Security! Woo hoo! Since I was in downtown Birmingham I decided to go check out a year-round farmers market not too far away. I drove over there and began noticing I was in a very rough area of town and pulled into the driveway of the market, turned around and drove home. I didn't even stop the car, lol.
Anyone wanna send me some warm weather and some in N out? Air mail, Fed Ex, Next Day Air, please. :-)
It's only in the upper 20's today, and we aren't going to see the warmer side of 40 degrees for at least a week.

Merry (Belated?) Christmas

I hope everyone's holiday was cheerful, joyful, and bright! Steve and I were invited to a turkey dinner by his Gunnery Sergeant (aka his "boss") on Christmas Eve with one of the other Marines from the office as well as his wife and 2 little ones. Because we were invited to this event the day before (Dec 23rd), I whipped up some cookies and English toffee to bring along and rushed to Target at 5 pm 2 days before Christmas to pick up a couple last minute baking items and something to WEAR! After having a big garage sale right before we moved to Alabama, (I was in a "get rid of it, take it away mood") and hence don't really own much to wear that would make me presentable at a Christmas Eve party thrown by my hubby's boss whom I have met exactly once before. Sorry that was a long-winded. But I felt a little overwhelmed. In the end, we had a nice time and it was nice to get to know some of the people Steve works with every day.
Steve and I had a quiet Christmas at home. We opened/exchanged gifts and ate a spread of appetizers that I made. After the Thanksgiving dinner I made I didn't feel like doing a big hooplah-again. We both stayed in our jammies all day. :-)
All the squirrels have finally been caught! We got a total of 6 and the exterior opening on the side of the house has been patched so nothing else can enter. The hole in our wall has not yet been fixed, but it was Christmas 2 days ago, so I didn't figure they'd fix it this week.
We don't have any plans thus far for New Years, but the news tonight mentioned the possibility of snow for us on New Years day. (!!!)

That's all for now,
Hilabee

2 more!

Yessir! 2 more squirrels were caught today! We didn't just have a couple of squirrels in our wall, it appears we had a whole family! No WONDER it was so noisy. I'm supposed to listen for anymore squirrel noises so that if we got them all the land lord can get started on patching the wall.
Keeping my fingers crossed,
Hilabee

O Christmas Tree

Heyyyyy!
Steve and I found a Christmas tree! It's a Scotch Pine and smells lovely! I also picked up 5 strings of 100 lights, only to run out of lights a little more than half way up the tree. Steve and I went out the next day to Target, Home Depot, and Wal-Mart looking for more lights but everywhere was sold out of white lights! And I couldn't have a tree with half white lights and half colored! That would look ridiculous! But then, at Wal-Mart there in the back of the shelf, half hiding behind all the left-over colored lights, 3 lonely boxes of 100 white lights! The last 3! In the whole store! Maybe in the whole city of Birmingham! Hooray! So yes, there are 800 lights on our Christmas tree. And I forgot how poke-y pine trees are when you are trying to put lights on them! I had little red bumps all over my hands and wrists.
Worth it though, wouldn't you say?

I also bought some plain Christmas bulbs and painted them. This one was easiest but turned out to be my favorite. Ooh-Rah!

I put my camera timer to good use!

This was one of those DIY shots. :-)

Squirrel Update:

The Squirrel-catcher came again on Monday to check if the live traps had caught anything. Since it had been a week and nothing, he put a "kill trap" in front of their hole. If any squirrel went in or out, SNAP! It looked something like a mini bear trap. The squirrel man said I might see a squirrel "hangin' up there." I thought "oh great that sounds lovely."

So this morning I go down to the garage to put in a load of laundry and success! The kill trap snapped the little booger! It's really kind of morbid, but I was almost happy to see the dead squirrel hanging up there. I called the squirrel man and he came this afternoon to get the squirrel and also said that one of the live traps he left up there caught a little squirrel too. Since I could still hear movement in the wall this morning he reset the kill trap and went on his way. We are finally beginning to get rid of our little squirrel problem. Phew!

Ttyl,

Hilabee

SNOW!

It snowed last night here in Alabama! We got a pretty good dusting too, enough to last well into this morning. Steve and I went out in it last night since it was his first time seeing real snow fall from the sky. Being from CA about the only "snow" we see "fall" is the stuff from the snow machine at the ski resort. And even that is really more like ice chips... Anywho I took some pictures and braved the snowy yard to take a picture of our house this morning. I hadn't taken any pictures of the house yet so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to take some while it's all dusty white! I also finally got around to uploading the photos of our couch, and the Christmas decorations that I made! That's what I've been up to this week instead of blogging. Sorry. :-(

Steve calls these the "balls of jolly." Lol. I used 6 inch styrofoam balls and silk pointsettias and cut the stems off and glued them on with hot glue. Then I glued the leaves from the pointsettias in the empty spaces between the flowers and strung them all together with pretty ribbon!

I bought this plain wreath and glued Christmas pretties all over it. It's hanging on the front door but on the inside of the house because if I hang it on the outside our storm door smashes it and won't close. :-(

Here is our new couch and coffee table! Love it!

Snow Pansies!

Oh mushyyyy eeeeew!
Really cold...
The trees behind our house all covered in snow!

The berry bush next to our house.

Our little house all covered in snow! It looks charming! ;-)

Steve and I are going to go find a Christmas tree today! Happy weekend everyone!

<3 Hilabee

Enjoying the new couch.

I'm sitting on our new couch! It's beautiful! It was finally delivered at about 9 pm last night. We got the delivery drivers' VERY VERY last stop of the night. I never even knew furniture could be delivered at that hour! We sat down on it to watch a movie and I promptly fell asleep on it. What better way to break in a new couch?!?!
(I have pictures but I am being too tired/lazy to post, sorry. Better luck tomorrow.)

The squirrels have infiltrated my dreams. All the scratching and noise-making caused me to have a dream that the squirrel escaped our board-and-box "wall" and was trying to attack me. Steve and I have moved our bed into the guest room (AKA the "box room" as it is currently filled with boxes to unpack). The exterminator who specializes in unusual pest problems comes Monday. Thank GOODNESS!
Bed time now, just found out tonight that I probably have to get up with Steve in the morning to go check in at his office since I'm his "family." Hehehe.
Goodnight and I'll let you know how it goes!
<3 Hilabee

SQUIRRELS. Are Pesky.

Helllloooo!
I hope everyone had a delicious, thankful, and pleasant Thanksgiving!
Steve and I are getting settled into our place! We found a nice house with 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, all hardwood floors, fresh paint, and a garage that fits both of our vehicles. We moved in on Thursday, November 19, so we've been here just over a week now. So far things have been coming together nicely. We had to get just about everything that anyone would need to furnish a home and was just starting out. We literally had Steve's TV, my bed, our clothes, and minimal kitchen "furnishings," (I guess you would call them...). So needless to say we had a bit of shopping to do. Woe is me. Hehehe.
We've since purchased a washer and dryer, a dining room table and chairs, a dresser, a TV stand, a desk, and we are waiting for our new couch to be delivered today!

Here is Steve admiring our new "espresso" counter-height table and chairs. My favorite part about our table is that the leaf to expand it is stored under the table top and comes out butterfly-style when you need it! How cool is that?

Here is the first meal that we ate at our new table. I made tilapia, rice, and butter beans.

Steve and I had read about butter beans before we moved to Alabama. We found some at the grocery store and wondered what all the hoop-lah was about.

Me, about to try butter beans for the first time. Are they any good?

Yes, they are!

They are an earthy-tasting bean with a very potato-like texture on the inside. The inside is even white like potatoes, like butter beans were actually potatoes in disguise. Or something. And, (amazingly!) they taste fantastic with butter on them.

Our table was delivered the day before Thanksgiving, and thank goodness because I decided 2 days before thanksgiving that "darn it, I want Thanksgiving dinner." So yes, I cooked a full-blown all-out Thanksgiving dinner for Steve and I that probably could have fed a family of at least 8. But it turned out well. And we still have about a half ton of leftovers to eat. I made my mom's cranberry relish, a pecan pie, a 12 lb turkey, a box of stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, veggies, rolls, and gravy! Yum yum. I was going to make a pumpkin pie too but ended up buying a pre-made one due to the "shortage" of canned pumpkin this year. :-(

Here is what our Thanksgiving spread looked like. Lovely on our new table!

Here's is my turkey! It was yum-yummy. :-)

So I'm sure, at this point you're wondering, so what does all this have to do with pesky woodland creatures? Well I'll tell you. Come to find out, it's nesting season for flying squirrels, and around this time of year many people have problems with them invading their attic. Oh yes, we definetly have squirrels, but they aren't in the attic. They decided to chew a hole in the side of the house and are now living in the wall in our bedroom RIGHT next to the head of our bed. SQUIRRELS ARE NOT QUIET! And become particularly ACTIVE at DAWN. We notified our landlord who had humane traps set out a few days ago, but the squirrels have proved to be smarter than we thought. :-(

Steve and I were listening to the chewing and scratching at dawn this morning, making sure to give the squirrels a few good bumps on our bedroom wall as a thanks for waking us up at dawn again. And then, Steve was listening to the wall and said "I think it's right here. And when he touched the wall, it broke! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! The squirrels had not only been chewing on the framework inside the wall, but also on the wall it self. To make matters more interesting, the squirrel was right inside the hole!!! So at dawn this morning, Steve and I are stumbling around the house in the half-darkness looking for something to put in front on the hole until we could call our landlord to have something done about it. "Put this cardboard and some packing tape!" "No the tape will take the paint off the wall." "There's a HOLE in the wall!"

There is now a board and a heavy box in front of the hole, because a squirrel has already stuck a nose, a bushy tail, and one teeny tiny paw through the hole into our bedroom. (We're convinced it's a squirrel-monster and it's trying to get us!!)

SEEEEE?!?!? Squirrel-monster!

I checked on the hole earlier and they (we think there are 2, actually) are having a grand old time making the hole in our wall bigger. It's all very interesting, LOL.
I shall continue to provide breaking coverage on this squirrel story as it develops.
<3 Hilabee

We made it!

Hooray! We made it into Birmingham last night. We checked into a temporary living facility where they charge by the week instead of by the night like a hotel. It's a quaint little studio with a bed and a kitchenette and a bathroom, enough to get us though until we find a place to live. We searched online for the better part of the day today for houses to rent, and came across a few that looked promising. There are definitely some cute houses out here!
The remainder of our drive here was uneventful, by the last day I was so tired of driving I could hardly see straight. 4 days of driving 10 hours really wears on you. Alabama is definitely alot different than California. I think the food is the main thing, there is tons of butter and grease and frying used in alot (scratch that, ALL) of the food out here, and my stomach is just not used to it. I can't wait until we get into our home so I can start cooking again.
On another note, there are tons of beautiful trees out here, and they are everywhere!
Once we got into the eastern-most area of Texas there started to be less and less desert and more and more forest. There are also alot of rivers and lakes in the area, and there's this really clean and fresh feeling in the air. :-)
After Odessa, TX we stayed in a little town called Minden in Louisiana. Yesterday, our last day of driving, we left Minden and drove over the Mississippi river and through Mississipi. (I snapped a picture as I drove over the Missisippi, see my Facebook!)Once we crossed into Alabama it was only another 3 hours or so into Birmingham.
I saw a dead armadillo on the side of the road yesterday. Interesting looking little creature. I had no idea they existed out here!
I'm going to go relax with my hubby now, we've got a date with some wine and a goofy movie!
Ttyl y'all,
Hilabee ;-)

Texas

Hello again! Steve and I stopped to stay tonite in Odessa, TX. We made it over 500 miles again today. So far the trip is easy going. We've been blessed with beautiful weather both days. There are alot of oil pumps out here and they are right next to the highway. They have a smell unlike anything I've ever smelled before- it's like a cross between something burning and an earthy yet chemical smell. After a while it was starting to make my nose burn, like when you clean the bathroom and use to much bleach. Lol. I also saw a large male deer (buck) grazing about 5 feet off the side of the road today, which was odd because it was in broad daylight. My dad said it's mating season for deer roghtnow and it's got them roaming and acting strangely. Anywho, off to bed now, good nite!
<3
Hilabee

Hello from AZ!

Helllo! Steve and I left CA this morning for Alabama, and we made it to Benson, AZ tonight. We drove a total of about 9 hours today and averaged about 60 mph. Benson is about 35 miles east of Tuscon. We drove past Picacho Peak and Tombstone already and I wanted to stop both places! Anyway, we're going to have dinner at Denny's now and then get some rest.
Until tomorrow,
Hilabee

Packing & Moving, Moving & Packing

Hello there! As most of you know already, Steve and I were married in a small, quick, civil ceremony on Friday November 6. We had only close family there and we all celebrated with a sushi lunch afterward. Steve and I spent the weekend at the Hilton as a "mini honeymoon" before we got back to reality and got down to business on moving. When we got home on Sunday I immediately started packing again and Steve went down to see about getting a truck. He came back with out a truck due to a problem with the bank, but he went back down there this morning after talking with the bank and got one without a problem. He then went to his storage and got all of his belongings out of it and should be on his way over with everything so we can get my things loaded into it. I'm going to try my darndest to post daily while we're on the road so everyone can stay in the loop!
Ttyl y'all!
<3 Hilabee