Thanksgiving was fabulous. Matt's folks came into town and his siblings came over. Matt's mom helped me cook and we had a great Thanksgiving meal, it was great to finally be home for Thanksgiving after the last couple of years, when I had to spend holidays thousands of miles from home. I love hosting events and I love having family around.
But this Thanksgiving is even more special because not only did I get to spend it at home w/Matt and Brovi, but the next day I headed out to Europe. I have to go to France for work, but I only have to be in France for 2 days for work, but since I have to go to Europe anyway, I asked work if I can go to Germany during the same trip and visit my sister. My work had no problems w/such arrangement, which is awesome. So, this Thanksgiving holiday I get to spend w/Matt's family as well as w/my sister and her hubby in their new apartment in Stuttgart.
I am very excited to get there, but as always when you are counting minutes until you are at your final destination, something gets in the way....I was flying from Minneapolis-to Cincinnati-to Paris-to Strasbourgh where my sister will be picking me up. Well, I made it to one flight w/out delays....However, when I got to Cincinatti, well, things didn't go as perfectly as I was hoping. I was hoping to get on the flight, I was hoping for the flight to land early in Paris so I can make my next connection (only had 1 hour between flights). Well, instead, my flight to Paris got delayed by 2.5 hours...Needless to say, there is not chance I can make my connection now, so I am on the next flight to Strasbourgh....The reason for the delay is maintainance of the plane, so I guess I shouldn't complain, because I would much rather board a safe plane than take a risk...But I am a bit disappointed by the fact that I have to wait a few hours more until I see my sister.
Oh well...Thank God for iPhone, computer and interent connections at the airport, although I had to fork up some money for the latter, but it was only $7.00 and I say that's worth it, otherwise I wouldn't be able to write a few emails, check work emails, facebook, and chat w/my sister as much as I wanted to :)
Looks like I should head over to the gate area (had to leave the area because there is a shortage of electrical outlets at just about any airport, and my computer's battery doesn't last forever). I hope for the plane to show up soon so I can take a nap soon and so I can get over to Germany, spend some time w/my sis, drink beer, wine, visit a few Christmas markets and do all kinds of other fun stuff!!!
Cheers!
PS: Hope everybody had a fantastic Thanksgiving!!!
Friday, November 27, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Training
Well, we have had our puppy since September 9th, 2009....
He is a mini labradoodle and is incredibly smart. He is housetrained at the age of 4 months (w/very occasional accidents) and he knows a few commands (shake, sit, down, come). I say that it's because both poodle and labs are very smart breeds.
Anyway, as soon as I agreed to have a puppy, I realized that it would take a lot of time to train the dog, take it on walks, attend vet appointments, etc. However, I didn't quite realize how much time you have to spend on training. See, I thought I would go to training class, they will teach the dog what to do and then I would reinforce it during the next couple of days and voila....Wow, was I living in a dream.
We's already been through one obedience class and we are on the next level and even though he is doing great, oh my goodness, he requires a ton of time.
Unlike my assumption of what training will be, we go to class once a week, the owners are taught the tricks and behavior that dogs need to learn, the owners are trained on how to communicate w/their pets to obtain the right behavior and then the class is dismissed. We are given homework, where we have to train our puppies EVERY day...Yes, we have to dedicate about 30 minutes every day to train our dogs! It doesn't seem like 30 minutes is that long, right? Well, when I wake up at 6am (keep in mind, I am not an early person), then go to work, come back for lunch only to take my puppy out for a break and a quick walk, and then head back to work until evening at which point I rush back home...take my puppy to the off-leash dog park for an hour and a half (or until his energy runs out) and then come home...Brovi loves attention even when he is tired, so we usually play for about an hour after we come home...So, during the whole day the first time I get to sit down and just relax for a few minutes is at about 7:00pm....by then I really have no motivation or energy left to try and train him on any tricks or obedience....Well, last week has been not so good, we haven't done much training....But usually I try to make a point during the day to dedicate sometime to just training....Next week will be better!!!
He is a mini labradoodle and is incredibly smart. He is housetrained at the age of 4 months (w/very occasional accidents) and he knows a few commands (shake, sit, down, come). I say that it's because both poodle and labs are very smart breeds.
Anyway, as soon as I agreed to have a puppy, I realized that it would take a lot of time to train the dog, take it on walks, attend vet appointments, etc. However, I didn't quite realize how much time you have to spend on training. See, I thought I would go to training class, they will teach the dog what to do and then I would reinforce it during the next couple of days and voila....Wow, was I living in a dream.
We's already been through one obedience class and we are on the next level and even though he is doing great, oh my goodness, he requires a ton of time.
Unlike my assumption of what training will be, we go to class once a week, the owners are taught the tricks and behavior that dogs need to learn, the owners are trained on how to communicate w/their pets to obtain the right behavior and then the class is dismissed. We are given homework, where we have to train our puppies EVERY day...Yes, we have to dedicate about 30 minutes every day to train our dogs! It doesn't seem like 30 minutes is that long, right? Well, when I wake up at 6am (keep in mind, I am not an early person), then go to work, come back for lunch only to take my puppy out for a break and a quick walk, and then head back to work until evening at which point I rush back home...take my puppy to the off-leash dog park for an hour and a half (or until his energy runs out) and then come home...Brovi loves attention even when he is tired, so we usually play for about an hour after we come home...So, during the whole day the first time I get to sit down and just relax for a few minutes is at about 7:00pm....by then I really have no motivation or energy left to try and train him on any tricks or obedience....Well, last week has been not so good, we haven't done much training....But usually I try to make a point during the day to dedicate sometime to just training....Next week will be better!!!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Silence....
...interrupted....Haven't been writing for quite sometime, that is not to say that nothing has been going on. In fact, there has been too much. But that's ok, that's the way I like it.
thought i would share my thoughts about my puppy...he is extremely entertaining, there is not a day that goes by w/o Brovi making me smile....My sister the other day asked me what I think he does when I am at work (everybody remembers now that Matt is gone during the week and I work during the day)....Well, I wish I could say that I have no clue what he does during the day, however, I think I have a pretty good idea. First half of the day he sleeps, of that I am positive. Anytime I come home for lunch (in reality there is no lunch involved, it's just me coming home to take Brovi out and feed HIM lunch)he is waking up from his sleep....When I am by the kitchen he takes his time to stretch and yawn and then he runs to the door (he is very good at house training and goes up to 5 hours w/no accidents!!!)In the second part of the day however, I do think that he gets bored and that is when he keeps himself busy w/playing w/his toys (that take a huge beating from him, we are having a hard time finding toys that he won't destroy w/in a couple of weeks), but when toys aren't interesting enough he proceeds on spreading recycling cans around the kitchen, chewing up my recipe that he had to jump to get, tearing apart boxes that hold soda cans, destroying his bed (there will be holes in it soon enough if he doesn't stop digging) and I am sure he finds other mischeif that is just not that visible to my human eye :)
Overall, he is a very busy guy (Brovi, the puppy that is), when I come home at night he knows the routine: i take him out for 2 minutes to do his business quickly, we proceed to go inside and go immideately upstairs for me to change into comfy clothes so I can take him out on a long walk. If I go in the kitchen after taking him out instead of going upstairs, he will sit on the stairs and bark. If I change into comfy clothes and don't go out immediately and instead contemplate of grabbing a quick bite to eat, he will bark! After our long walk we come home and he goes absolutely bonkers in the house for about 10 minutes, after which he is ready to play w/me and his toys (mind you, he doesn't want to play w/his toys on his own, he wants me to play w/him)....How is he so energetic, well, I am guessing all the sleeping that he does during the day, but the time it's 8pm I am exhausted. Thank goodness, he crashes around 8-9pm. It's amazing, he will be super hyper and than all of a sudden he would just plop on the couch or floor and fall fast asleep...amazing.
Anyway, he certainly does keep me company during the week, I think I haven't been bugging Matt as much in the evenings, because Brovi doesn't give me much free time to do whatever I want to. I do enjoy Brovi, he is awesome and we spend sometime learning new skills, he knows: sit, down, shake! Down was a bit tricky, he really doesn't like to lay down....He finally figured out how to do it on command, but even now he will bark before he will lay down and sometimes he will attempt to jump up before laying down...I think it's his way of trying to protest, but he is losing, because the only way he gets a treat is if he lays down....he is slowly coming to terms to such harsh regime though :)
thought i would share my thoughts about my puppy...he is extremely entertaining, there is not a day that goes by w/o Brovi making me smile....My sister the other day asked me what I think he does when I am at work (everybody remembers now that Matt is gone during the week and I work during the day)....Well, I wish I could say that I have no clue what he does during the day, however, I think I have a pretty good idea. First half of the day he sleeps, of that I am positive. Anytime I come home for lunch (in reality there is no lunch involved, it's just me coming home to take Brovi out and feed HIM lunch)he is waking up from his sleep....When I am by the kitchen he takes his time to stretch and yawn and then he runs to the door (he is very good at house training and goes up to 5 hours w/no accidents!!!)In the second part of the day however, I do think that he gets bored and that is when he keeps himself busy w/playing w/his toys (that take a huge beating from him, we are having a hard time finding toys that he won't destroy w/in a couple of weeks), but when toys aren't interesting enough he proceeds on spreading recycling cans around the kitchen, chewing up my recipe that he had to jump to get, tearing apart boxes that hold soda cans, destroying his bed (there will be holes in it soon enough if he doesn't stop digging) and I am sure he finds other mischeif that is just not that visible to my human eye :)
Overall, he is a very busy guy (Brovi, the puppy that is), when I come home at night he knows the routine: i take him out for 2 minutes to do his business quickly, we proceed to go inside and go immideately upstairs for me to change into comfy clothes so I can take him out on a long walk. If I go in the kitchen after taking him out instead of going upstairs, he will sit on the stairs and bark. If I change into comfy clothes and don't go out immediately and instead contemplate of grabbing a quick bite to eat, he will bark! After our long walk we come home and he goes absolutely bonkers in the house for about 10 minutes, after which he is ready to play w/me and his toys (mind you, he doesn't want to play w/his toys on his own, he wants me to play w/him)....How is he so energetic, well, I am guessing all the sleeping that he does during the day, but the time it's 8pm I am exhausted. Thank goodness, he crashes around 8-9pm. It's amazing, he will be super hyper and than all of a sudden he would just plop on the couch or floor and fall fast asleep...amazing.
Anyway, he certainly does keep me company during the week, I think I haven't been bugging Matt as much in the evenings, because Brovi doesn't give me much free time to do whatever I want to. I do enjoy Brovi, he is awesome and we spend sometime learning new skills, he knows: sit, down, shake! Down was a bit tricky, he really doesn't like to lay down....He finally figured out how to do it on command, but even now he will bark before he will lay down and sometimes he will attempt to jump up before laying down...I think it's his way of trying to protest, but he is losing, because the only way he gets a treat is if he lays down....he is slowly coming to terms to such harsh regime though :)
Sunday, June 7, 2009
LA Fitness and my neck
Well, this weekend Matt and I went to yet another exercise club to see if we will like it and if it's a good price for us to join so I can start exercising. Matt does like to belong to the gym, but since he is traveling most of the week, where he can exercise at the local gyms, and when he is home he has no problem whatsoever putting his running pants on and going jogging or hopping on a bike and disappear for hours. I, on the other hand, am a totally different story. I am rather lazy when it comes to exercising, and while I do enjoy bike riding, I prefer to do it for leisure, not exercise; running, well, forget about it alltogether, I am not runner. I used to love Step class, but my chiropractor practically forbids me to do that, since it's a high impact class and will only intensify my neck pains....Since I need motivation to exercise, I do need to be in classes, so I do need to belong to a club. The best thing for me to do is water aerbics, but you know what, 98% of people who do those are old people, and while I have nothing against the old people, I don't want to be doing water aerobics with them, sorry.
In the past few months Matt and I have toured a few clubs: Bally's, Snap Fitness, Lifetime and finally today we went to LA Fitness. My first choice would be Lifetime Fitness of course, they have a gazzillion of classes, their facilities are SUPER nice, but they are pretty darn expensive. Bally's looked too cheap, uncomfortable and dark, Snap - well that is a totally different kind of a experience in itself, they don't have any staff on duty there even. So, after going to Bally's, Snap and Lifetime, Matt and I knew that Lifetime was winning that war, at a rather expensive price. We have delayed joining Lifetime because of the price, but this week I have decided that I need to start exercising if I don't want to look like a watermelon, so we got up and went on a tour of LA Fitness facilities. And I must say I liked it. Even though it is not as nice as Lifetime, it's still pretty nice and clean and very eye-pleasing. They have plenty of machines and although not too many exercising, I think I will be able to find something that I will like, I will just have to be more flexible with time and days of those classes, but seeing as I don't work, that should not be a problem. The guy at LA Fitness tried his best to make me smile and tell him that I liked the club, but I just took all the info in and by nature don't display my emotions to strangers, so I think he was disappointed that I did not warm up to him. Anyway, once we left Matt asked me what I thought of the club, because in this case I am the decision maker, seeing as the goal of the project is to get me exercising....I think we are going to join LA Fitness next week though. I am kind of excited, it will take me time to get into a habit of going to the gym, but it will be good. Now when I get bored at home, instead of eating I will get to go to the gym. Well, ok, it might not work just like that, but I am excited to finally belong to the gym again, I do miss it, and there are days when I wish I could go to the gym.....So, thanks to my chiropractor who told me to stay clear of the step classes and other high impact classes that Lifetime has to offer, and thanks to LA Fitness for maintaining very nice facilities, I will be starting to exercise again.
In the past few months Matt and I have toured a few clubs: Bally's, Snap Fitness, Lifetime and finally today we went to LA Fitness. My first choice would be Lifetime Fitness of course, they have a gazzillion of classes, their facilities are SUPER nice, but they are pretty darn expensive. Bally's looked too cheap, uncomfortable and dark, Snap - well that is a totally different kind of a experience in itself, they don't have any staff on duty there even. So, after going to Bally's, Snap and Lifetime, Matt and I knew that Lifetime was winning that war, at a rather expensive price. We have delayed joining Lifetime because of the price, but this week I have decided that I need to start exercising if I don't want to look like a watermelon, so we got up and went on a tour of LA Fitness facilities. And I must say I liked it. Even though it is not as nice as Lifetime, it's still pretty nice and clean and very eye-pleasing. They have plenty of machines and although not too many exercising, I think I will be able to find something that I will like, I will just have to be more flexible with time and days of those classes, but seeing as I don't work, that should not be a problem. The guy at LA Fitness tried his best to make me smile and tell him that I liked the club, but I just took all the info in and by nature don't display my emotions to strangers, so I think he was disappointed that I did not warm up to him. Anyway, once we left Matt asked me what I thought of the club, because in this case I am the decision maker, seeing as the goal of the project is to get me exercising....I think we are going to join LA Fitness next week though. I am kind of excited, it will take me time to get into a habit of going to the gym, but it will be good. Now when I get bored at home, instead of eating I will get to go to the gym. Well, ok, it might not work just like that, but I am excited to finally belong to the gym again, I do miss it, and there are days when I wish I could go to the gym.....So, thanks to my chiropractor who told me to stay clear of the step classes and other high impact classes that Lifetime has to offer, and thanks to LA Fitness for maintaining very nice facilities, I will be starting to exercise again.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Pretentious....
not a big fan of pretentious people...i volunteer for meals on wheels and today when I got there, there was this girl talking about Target and Wal-Mart and how she loves Target and could just hug Target, and that she would much rather pay more for her toilet paper rather than buy it from Wal-Mart and then the funny thing is that she and the person who she was discussing it with look at me for some input...not sure why they thought that I would agree with them, because I am not the most agreeable person and I had a look on my face that screamed "i don't agree with you and i can't stand hearing you talk"...anyway, at which point I calmly said that I have absolutely nothing against Wal-Mart and that the company is very good at business and that if I am closer to Wal-Mart than I have no problems stopping by and shopping. the girl who was ready to hug Target just said "well, I am very loyal to Target, they donate so much to local charities" to which I just started looking in other direction...seriously, nowadays ALL companies (well, ALL LARGE companies) donate to local charities, especially in the state where they are based out of...To say that Target donates more than Wal-Mart is ridiculous. I am glad that she is loyal to Target, it's good that she is, I guess, but it's silly to say I am willing to overpay for toilet paper only to support Target. If Target were to charge $3.00 more for toilet paper, would she stay loyal? If Target were going through rought times and did not carry toilet paper, will she go with paper towels? Why are people SOOO against the idea of NOT being restricted to just one store.
I personally like Target a lot better than Wal-Mart, I won't drive out of my way to go to Target or Wal-Mart. There is nothing wrong with having a preference, mine is Target, but what is the deal with people who just can't STAN Wal-Mart. I have yet to hear somebody give me a good reason what it is that Wal-Mart has done to them that they are so strongly opinionated, most of them rely on just "they descriminate against women and they pay very poorly to store personell" Well, most store personell at Target (cashiers for example) don't make all that much either. Anyway, it's a stupid arguement as to why they HATE Wal-Mart and would never shop there.
oh and then i did mention to the other lady that I mostly go to Target because I grocery shop there and that same girl again was like "oh, yeah, i totally love them, they have so much really good pre-made stuff, and I love their Archer Farms stuff"...that is when I definitely decided that i am done contributing to the conversation and just walked away...seriously, I don't buy premade stuff, and Archer Farms stuff while is ok, it's no better than other branded stuff, really, and money-wise, well, Archer Farms is not exactly cheap.
Anyway, just needed to vent...like i said, I don't like close-minded and pretentious people....i am usually pretty good at staying away from them, today though I wasn't so lucky...
I personally like Target a lot better than Wal-Mart, I won't drive out of my way to go to Target or Wal-Mart. There is nothing wrong with having a preference, mine is Target, but what is the deal with people who just can't STAN Wal-Mart. I have yet to hear somebody give me a good reason what it is that Wal-Mart has done to them that they are so strongly opinionated, most of them rely on just "they descriminate against women and they pay very poorly to store personell" Well, most store personell at Target (cashiers for example) don't make all that much either. Anyway, it's a stupid arguement as to why they HATE Wal-Mart and would never shop there.
oh and then i did mention to the other lady that I mostly go to Target because I grocery shop there and that same girl again was like "oh, yeah, i totally love them, they have so much really good pre-made stuff, and I love their Archer Farms stuff"...that is when I definitely decided that i am done contributing to the conversation and just walked away...seriously, I don't buy premade stuff, and Archer Farms stuff while is ok, it's no better than other branded stuff, really, and money-wise, well, Archer Farms is not exactly cheap.
Anyway, just needed to vent...like i said, I don't like close-minded and pretentious people....i am usually pretty good at staying away from them, today though I wasn't so lucky...
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Leap of Faith....
...marriage that is...having children...being happy...it's a huge leap of faith that some of us aren't so willing to make due to the fact that if something goes wrong then you fall hard and end up heart-broken....it happens all over the world, people getting married and then getting divorced, people having children and the losing them...why do people take such risks? is it because they are brave or is it because they are cowards to spend life alone, because they want to be certain that they can't be hurt by those they willingly let into their lives....bravery or cowardness? which one? I am convinced we are motivated by one or the other in everything we do in our lives, but which one? which one?
and at the end of our lives...whatever choice we have made...is it worth it? and is one of them better than the other? and who is to decide that?
and at the end of our lives...whatever choice we have made...is it worth it? and is one of them better than the other? and who is to decide that?
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
2 years!!!
it's been 2 years since matt and i have gotten married, challenging in some respect, but nonetheless the best years of my life :) We got to travel Europe, find out what it's like to be far apart, what a true reunion actually feels like and many other beautiful and very important lessons and experiences.
FYI, we did not give each other any material presents for our 2 year anniversary, we are trying to move away from that, and it's working quite beautifully, as non-material presents are the best, longer lasting and much more meaningful...Ok, I just got to cook dinner for Matt, which was out of his system within 24 hours, but still....Matt woke up bright and early on Sunday (ok it was a day early of our 2 year anniversary, but he had to fly out of town on Monday, so he decided to present his gift to me one day early, you won't hear me complaining about that) to create a space in our yard where I can plant flowers. I have been wanting to plant flowers for quite some time, but we did not have any place to do so. Years ago, there was a tree removed from our yard, and there was a perfect circle left in the middle of our yard from the tree stump....Matt dug in, put soil in that circle and finished it off with stones around the border, it's truly beautiful. That same day he has made the flower space for me, I have planted some flowers in there (mostly seeds) and they are actually coming through the soil already. I love looking and my growing flowers and watering them and taking care of them, it's quite soothing and very rewarding :) I can actually grow something. And that spot that Matt made for me will be there for years, just like our marriage :) It's so much better than going out to a restaurant and getting a sweater or something....
2 years of being happily married and it's going to get only better from now on. I love my life!!! I love my husband!!!!!
FYI, we did not give each other any material presents for our 2 year anniversary, we are trying to move away from that, and it's working quite beautifully, as non-material presents are the best, longer lasting and much more meaningful...Ok, I just got to cook dinner for Matt, which was out of his system within 24 hours, but still....Matt woke up bright and early on Sunday (ok it was a day early of our 2 year anniversary, but he had to fly out of town on Monday, so he decided to present his gift to me one day early, you won't hear me complaining about that) to create a space in our yard where I can plant flowers. I have been wanting to plant flowers for quite some time, but we did not have any place to do so. Years ago, there was a tree removed from our yard, and there was a perfect circle left in the middle of our yard from the tree stump....Matt dug in, put soil in that circle and finished it off with stones around the border, it's truly beautiful. That same day he has made the flower space for me, I have planted some flowers in there (mostly seeds) and they are actually coming through the soil already. I love looking and my growing flowers and watering them and taking care of them, it's quite soothing and very rewarding :) I can actually grow something. And that spot that Matt made for me will be there for years, just like our marriage :) It's so much better than going out to a restaurant and getting a sweater or something....
2 years of being happily married and it's going to get only better from now on. I love my life!!! I love my husband!!!!!
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