Two Interesting Items

1. This is the strangest thing I've seen in at least a week:

DEAR JENNIPHER SHAVER, Offer good at Kansas City area stores only.

A hardware store giving out fruits and veggies as a promotion? Are they free? Are they snacks? Is Sutherlands now a grocery? I'm confused, but it's healthy, so I'm not going to complain. I'm just going to scratch my head.

2. I'm insane. I signed up for a 1/2 marathon. Yep, all 13.1 miles of it. The insanity will ensue on Sunday, March 29 in Olathe. I begin officially training on January 4, but goodness knows I'm getting my ass to the gym to run plenty before then.

Siena's Shenanigans and Other Events Since I Stopped Finding the Time to Blog

Things at the Nut have been crazy lately. My day job has been going as usual, I started teaching two boot camps (on the Nelson Lawn!) and then there's the "extra" project I've got going on the side. Sheesh. Not to mention having fun with friends, spending quality time with the fam and enjoying/chasing after my very large puppy. This is one summer for the books. Here's an abridged version of what's happened since I last blogged almost three weeks ago. Shame on me...

Siena Update
1) Siena has developed quite the sense of, er, humor. Her latest "game" is taking a prized possession from inside and running outside to chew on it. The fun part comes when Ryan or I go out to get it from her. The chase is cute the first couple of times, and then it gets old--quick. Her most recent treasure was a water spritzer. The same one that we use, I mean used to discipline her. Funny, Siena, really funny.

2) While I was making stir-fry for this post, Siena sneaked up and literally slurped up one of my noodles, Lady and the Tramp style. She sucked a long noodle all the way to her mouth with the tip hitting her nose. I laughed hard at this, which I'm sure is not the best way to teach her to not go after people's food.

3) Siena has a BFF. Her name is Izzy, and she lives next door. I've mentioned her before. Apparently, Siena can't bear the thought of them being outside at the same time without being able to run around/bite/play together. So, my little darling puppina JUMPED THE 4 FOOT FENCE to get to her. Then Ryan and I spent all day adding chicken wire and fence extenders to the chain-link fence to prevent further rendezvous.

4) Siena has also entered destruction mode. This was once a double-knotted, heavy-duty chewing rope (with minty floss!). Now, it's the spaghetti monster:


More moments of zen with Siena:




People and Plant Update
1) This summer has been unusually cool. And it hasn't been that humid. It really doesn't feel like the big Mo, but I'll take it. A few weeks ago, Ryan and I, along with some friends, hit up the annual Shakespeare in the Park festival. This year they put on Othello, and it was fantastic. You can bring your own food and wine in, too, which makes it that much sweeter. As you can see, we had quite the feast.






2) Sadly, I forgot my camera on the 4th, but I guarantee it was filled with Kodak moments. We first hit up my parents for a grill out with a ridiculous amount of meat, and then went over to a friend's for more meat, beer and bocce ball, which Ryan is now obsessed with. I have to admit that it is fun, despite it having the most boring wiki entry ever.

3) Ryan and I have been working our butts off in the yard, and we're finally reaping the rewards. You may remember the garden we planted back on Memorial Day? Well, little garden has grown. Check this out.


Besides making pesto with the loads of basil I've grown, this weekend we even got our first red grape tomato. Here's my moment of zen:

May Day

Gotta love KC in the spring time. We spent two hours last night watching the weather and listening to sirens go off. While we didn’t get hit with anything bad, many KC metro communities did, and it sucks. Not to mention that the hardest hit areas are places where my family lives – up north and in Independence. Talk about freaking a girl out this morning when I turned on the news.

The only good thing about the storms last night (and I’m making light of the situation here for sure) is that they broke Siena of her fear of the basement. She was deathly afraid of the basement. Before, we couldn’t get her to go down there on her own free will, even when we were bribing her with a hot dog (magic word training time). So, yesterday, the sirens go off and Ryan grabs the computer and phone, and I grab the 35-pound dog. The second time we have to go to the basement, little Miss Siena trots down the stairs like it’s no big deal. Seeing as she’s a cold-weather pup, I think she finally saw the benefit of chillin’ in the cool basement. Not to mention, that we didn’t have a lot to do down there, so she ended up getting a lot of undivided attention.

What a start to May. Hopefully this spring isn’t too bad tornado-wise, and this was the worst of it for KC this year. I’m just happy the Nut has a basement!

Embracing the Pink

It's day four of the pink eye from hell, and I'm happy to report that the pink eye monsta's grip on me is slowly releasing. This morning, after 11 hours of sleep, I awoke to an eye that was almost entirely open, with minimal swelling and a slighter less dramatic shade of pink. My energy is still a little low, but I am definitely looking and feeling less like Quasimodo and more like myself. Which is awesome because I'm flying to San Diego tomorrow morning and will spend Thursday through Saturday doing some major schmoozing. (And really, who wants to schmooze with a cyclops?)

Because of my trip, I won't be around to blog for a few days, but I'll hopefully have lots of good stories to share from the sunny state of California. And, a clean bill of health to report!

Two more bits information: embarrassment edition

1. The baby gates have come down, folks. But not because Siena is so advanced in her puppydom that she no longer needs a place to be corralled. No siree. It’s because I’m a clutz*.

Monday night, after teaching my core class at KCFitnessLink, one of the gates literally came crashing down. I mistakenly thought the gate was unlocked and, like I always do, pushed my hips “through” the gate, hoping to open it up and step right through. But, the gate was locked and I fell to the ground in what Ryan calls, “the slowest fall I’ve ever seen.” Funny as it is now, it hurt like a mo-fo, and I have the bruises on my feet to prove it. (The brunt of my fall was on the sides of my feet that crushed down on the baby gate’s bars.) I shouldn’t complain though. Ryan said that from watching the incident and then seeing me wither in pain as he quickly rushed over to help, he was certain we’d be going to the ER for a broken bone. Nonetheless, Siena finally got her revenge for puppy jail.

2. I got duped. Ever since Ryan and I bought our new camera in October, I’ve been on a huge photography kick. I’ve loved capturing the weather, landscapes, my friends, my family, my hubby and of course the pup. Earlier this year, I entered the picture of Siena romping in the snow with her tongue out to an amateur photo contest. In the contest, you didn’t give up your copyrights and, if chosen, could win some cash. I had kind of forgotten about it until yesterday when I received a letter in the mail saying that my photo was a semi-finalist in their winter 2008 contest. I didn’t have to do anything but send back in a signed sheet that it was my original work. Also, the contest wanted to publish my photograph in a coffee table book, and I could buy that if I wanted but didn’t have to.

At first, I was like, wow, I do have talent at this photography thing! But then, I got to thinking that it all seemed kind of strange. The font seemed a little suspect (like one of those pre-approved credit cards or get-a-second-mortgage mailers) and generic. And the letter kept mentioning how you didn’t have to buy anything.

Thank God for Google. One quick search for The International Library of Photography, and I found this. Can you say scam?

I was a bit disappointed though. I really wanted to be a semi-finalist! Thankfully, Ryan was nice enough to say that I was already a finalist in his contest, and Siena had already won cutest puppy of the year because of it.**

*For further proof read the post, “Can’t help it. The girl can’t help it.”

**I almost deleted this last paragraph, but tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, so what the hell.

Two bits of information:

1) Siena is going to be a very big girl. Not that we didn't already know this, but I think it's finally beginning to sink in. At her final vaccination appointment this morning, she weighed 19 pounds. That's up almost 8 pounds from a month ago. Yikes. There's no turning back now.

2) While on the way back from Springfield last night, Ryan officially named his car. The Morsel is the chosen name. This was partially inspired by the car's itty-bitty look, as in a "small bite" or "morsel." I think it's cute. Tish is still calling the car Yani though. Old habits -- or names -- die hard.