Found in Fishers

Doggie Daycare Day 3

Today was day 3 of my Doggie Daycare. All are still behaving quite well! One small accident in the laundry room but not too bad. It has been the only accident. I must say that taking care of a puppy is much like taking care of a toddler. He is into everything!

I think for us, it has taken so much of our time because we don't have the house quite set up for a puppy and there are 5 dogs in total I am watching. Additionally, we never had a puppy. All of our dogs have been rescue dogs and were already at least 2 years old. Yes, we had to potty train all but our first dog Ollie, but they were not so demanding of our time and energy like Deagan. He cannot be out at "recess" without constant supervision or the Christmas tree would be on the ground and all of the Spanish moss from our fake trees would be eaten since he likes to snack on it. When not watching him I am vacuuming the house. There are times I just need a break  so all dogs go into their cages. In the photo they were all in one cage hanging out but the door was not shut. Sally and Buddy are acting like themselves, curious though about the puppy. And, lots of butt sniffing.

It was worth it today, we were rewarded big time! Pat, Sarah, and Liam came back from their hotel stay and we were treated to dinner tonight by Pat and Sarah at  Kona Jacks. Kona Jacks is an Indianapolis seafood restaurant. We started with some sushi. Sarah had an awesome bleu cheese fettuccine with shrimp on it, I had shrimp stuffed with crab. Pat had tilapia and John sea bass. It was kinda weird eating seafood by fish tanks. We asked the waitress to cover the tank, she of course laughed.

Once home we watched a movie and had dessert. Ok, that was worth watching the dogs. And tomorrow Pat is grilling some filets that he had shipped to us from Omaha Steaks. Mmmm. We are always treated well for helping out.

Puppy Boot Camp

A few months back I agree to watch Sarah's two weiner dogs while they "vacationed" at the Indy Holiday Inn that has a water park attached to it. Well...that was before she got a puppy! He's as cute as a button. And really smart. But at day's end, he's still a puppy.

Twelve weeks old and in Reichanadter Puppy Boot Camp this week, Deagan is a German Shepard that is 100% puppy. That makes 5 dogs this week. He is actually very smart, just needs some structure. He is in the right place. He and his brothers are living in the laundry room for a few days. In a rather short time, I was able to get him to go do his doggy business outside. He goes out on command, takes care of business, can is ready for a treat. Works well. The #2 not as easy yet, but give me until tomorrow. During the day he plays in the laundry room when I can't keep a good eye on him. It's so funny because his cage is in there so he will rest and nap with the other 2 in his cage with the door open. Then he'll play.

After about an hour or so I let him and the other 4 dogs have recess. That means everyone gets to run around the house and chase each other. My dogs do more watching than playing, but Charlie and Deagan are at it the entire time. Then we go through a bit of time where Deagan drags out all the bowls and toys into the living room. His favorite toy is the metal water bowl; he has three of them. He also loves running around the circular path of the house.

Tonight during recess just before bed I let Deagan play with an old knotted sock. He had the best time. He also liked carrying around his bowl. It is quite funny when he tries to get between furniture with the bowl in his mouth only to be stopped in the tight space. Keep checking on his progress. Right now he went to bed and so far no crying. Let's hope for a quiet night!
 

An Evening with Celine

This year during the school's winter break, I decided to take some vacation time. I have been busy catching up with friends and family and having a great time doing so. Last weekend I went to see the Celine Dion concert in Indianapolis with my friends Susie and Maribeth.

My friend Maribeth recently had foot surgery so she was still in a walking cast when we asked where we could park so that she could get in easily and near an elevator. We were told to "Go to the Roof" and "Keep Moving." There was no love shown to make sure we got a good spot to park even with her handicapped parking tag.  We ended up on the roof.

Once we parked, I was rather amazed at how fast Maribeth walked in her cast. Faster than me or Susie! There were many laughs getting inside to our seats. The show started on time with a comedian but then Celine did not appear until almost an hour later. I think they were waiting because parking was a problem.

The show was great! Celine sang for almost 2 hours. There was a mixture of new and old songs. She is quite the entertainer. It was a great night! We decided that we would make a concert an annual event so we will be checking the 2009 schedule. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Winter in Chicago

Mark and I left for Chicago on Tuesday about 10:30 AM. The drive up to Chicago was not bad. There was quite a bit of blowing dry snow in Lafayette, but other than that a smooth ride. Took us about 2 and a half hours. My friend Ellen lost out on that window and left an hour later. It took her EIGHT hours to get up north. While in the area, the weather continued to get worse. Icy in Indy and snowy in Chicago. Today, Wednesday, it has been raining all day on the icy snow making it very slippery. Not sure if John and Liz are going to be able to come up north for Christmas, the roads may not allow for travel. Here is a picture of the area. It did end up getting warmer but that was after the ice storm.

Tis the Season to be Jolly

What a great day we had last weekend! Juan and I hosted a Christmas party for our friends in Fishers that we tail-gated with during the band season. I prepared a bunch of snacks and some other goodies. The most fun was when some of use gathered around the piano for a Christmas sing-a-long. I was so impressed that our friend De-De could play so many songs by heart. We would name the song and she would play it for us to sing. You could tell Gregg and David were high school and college "choir boys" awhile back. Boy, could they sing! I was still nursing a cold so no matter how hard I tried, I sang off key.  Way off key.

We had fun talking about teenagers and I shared my little secret I wanted to do just to be naughty. I keep teasing John that I want to do something naughty that would not get me in a bunch of trouble. Nothing illegal, just naughty. So I keep telling him that I am getting a tattoo. I shared with the group that I wanted this little swirl tattoo on my ankle. We got to laughing about tattoos in general when finally the discussion ended when I said I was getting a "tramp stamp" with the saying "If you can read this Thank a Teacher." That lead to some good laughs and of a wonderful evening with friends. 

I hope to do this again soon!

Bah, ha ha, humbug!

Friday night, Juan, Mark and I spent the evening with friends at Comedy Sportz in downtown Indianapolis for A Christmas Carol Unscripted. We spent a couple hours laughing very hard. When you go to an unscripted night at Comedy Sportz on Mass Ave, you should expect the unexpected. First of all you need to be 17 years old to enter and it is one of the few events that they allow inappropriate and suggestive language. Mark and John were pumped to et a good earful.

This is how it works. When you enter the club there are two buckets on stage. In each bucket, the audience places pieces of paper which they have written funny movie lines, song lyrics, funny sayings, silly phrases, etc. Once the show begins, the audience is given several opportunities when actors intentionally pause for input. The show however is based on A Christmas Carol and Scrooge will see his 3 ghosts. During our show, Scrooge was a pimp based on audience input. During the show, the actors take a slip from time to time to lead the evening script.

The first half of the show was hilarious. The second half not so much as there were younger audience members who put in more comments in the buckets during the break. After a while you get kinda tired of hearing about male body parts. Even the actor stated he thought too many slips were written by a 19 year old. Katie being prepared for the night had her slips of paper prepared before arrived, typed. Me, I had quite a few that I wrote before the show started but there were so many slips that I never heard any of my comments. I was anxious to see how they would fit in saying "Life is like a box of chocolates."

I enjoy going to this annual holiday event. In the spring they will have another unscripted show. Last year it was Cinderella. If you are in town during that time, make sure you get a reservation.

My Big Win!!

I had a great day on Saturday! It started out kinda ordinary but ended quite exciting. I don't usually go to malls often but on Saturday I was looking for a particular Christmas present for my sister so I went with Mark and my friend Katie over to Castleton Mall in Indianapolis. While walking through the mall, Mark noticed that a radio station had one of those spinners where you can win a prize so he walked me over to the area. It was more than just spinning for a free ice scraper or sticker, first I had to scratch a game card advertising the new show on TNT called The Librarian. I scratched and got a gold chalice. Mark was too young to play.

The gold chalice meant I was put in a drawing for a visa debit card. They asked me to come back in one hour for the drawing. I was surrounded by several other people who had to be present to win. After spinning the entries around in the box several times, he pulled out my name! Can you believe it! I won! $1500 in visa debit cards. When I called Juan he did not believe me.

I have been thinking for a couple days now what I might want to buy. Should I treat myself, should I finish up my Christmas shopping? I was thinking about a new computer but mine is not horrible, it works for what I am doing. Should I fix the dent in my car? That would be practical and something I wanted to do recently. I am not sure. Any suggestions?