Happy Halloween! Office Style

How much fun is my office! Here are some pictures from the Halloween costume contest for work. For weeks I tried to convince as many people as I could to dress up, and about 13 of us actually did. :-) AND I won the costume contest!! I won a gift certificate to the local movie theater (yay!) and a gift certificate to McDonalds (yuk). It was a lot of fun, though. I'm getting good on those skates!

Here is the whole group of people who dressed up:

Here is my favorite group of work-people.

My coworker (Sandy from Grease!), me, and my supervisor (a painter!).
Stay tuned for pictures from Halloween night in D.C. - and Halloween with the pups!

Cake!

I bought a Halloween cake pan from my work and have been meaning to make a cake for a couple weeks. Joe ended up making it yesterday! It was so good! He even made orange icing for the body and green icing for the stem!

Another Great Weekend with Friends

Joe and I met up with Heidi and Stuart on Saturday and we toured around Georgetown. It was such a cute little area and we had a great time - even though it POURED down rain most of the day.

Wii Golf

So, ever since Stuart let us borrow the Wii, Joe has been talking about buying the Tiger Woods golf game. Apparently, it is the BEST GAME EVER. :-) Well, he decided it wasn't financially a good idea to buy it, so he rented it the other day. And I pretty much haven't talked to him since. haha. He spends all his time talking to the game, yelling at the commentators, yelling at himself (Tiger) for missing the shot, taunting his opponents, etc. Good thing we only have it a week. :-)

What a Cute Dog!

Isn't he adorable? He just LOVES his bears. :-)

Dinner

So, the other day Joe asked me if I would like to him to make me something for dinner one night this week. I told him that I really wanted to try this chili recipe I found online - but that we never had time to make it because it was a from-scratch recipe and took 7 hours to make. Last night I came home to the smell of homemade chili! And cornbread! It was SO great! Isn't my guy wonderful??

(Oh, and Stuart, it was vegan, so you should definitely give it a try sometime. Yum!)

Thursday

This week has actually been pretty quiet. Last week it seemed like we were doing something after work every night, be it shopping for Halloween, taking the dogs to the park, or running around for volunteer stuff. This week, not so much. With Joe being "unemployed", he takes the dogs to the dog park during the day, and does the dishes and the laundry. I get home and we get to actually just sit and spend time with each other. It's nice.

I did want to mention, again, however, the importance of the upcoming proposition in California. I know not many of you that read this live in California, but you might know people who do, so please ask them to vote YES on Prop 2. If you want to do what's best for farm animals, then vote yes. If you don't really care, then what does it hurt to vote yes anyway.... for me? :-)

For some more information, see my friend Stuart's blog post at http://seattletodc.blogspot.com/2008/10/yes-on-prop-2-in-california.html. He has some actual hands-on experience with these animals and posts a picture of one of them he met. Check it out.

I'll leave you with a typical nightly scene... Me, in bed reading. Jack curled up next to me, waiting for Joe to come and kick him out of bed. Ava hidden, under the covers, fast asleep. :-)

Pumpkin Patch!

On Sunday, Stuart and Heidi came up to visit Joe and I and we all went to a pumpkin patch! It was my first pumpkin patch and I was like a little kid, I was so excited! It turned out to be SO much fun. We walked around the pumpkin patch and each of us chose a pumpkin. Then we shopped around the little store that the owners owned - a very cute little store that had homemade pastries and home-grown fruits and veggies. Very cool.

Then we went back to our apartment and carved our pumpkins! We had carving kits so Heidi, Joe and I chose a design from their list. Stuart, being the creative genius he is, came up with a unique design (Jack, from the Nightmare Before Christmas) and hand carved his. Heidi got tired of the carving pretty early, ripped off her design and just did a simple jack-o-lantern instead. It was pretty funny.

It was too funny that the VHPR crew was all together again - 3,000 miles away from Mercer Island!

Here is the finished products:

 After the carving, I made dinner (Waikiki meatballs - thanks Mom!) and we drank wine and hung out. It was such a fun day!

Party for the Pigs!

Joe, Stuart and I went to a benefit last night for Farm Sanctuary. It was a fundraiser to benefit the pigs that were rescued from factory farms during the Iowa floods. It was so amazing to hear the stories of survival and to see the before and after pictures of these poor creatures.

(Oh, and Joe finally got to wear the new suit that his family bought him for graduation. Doesn't he look so handsome?!? Got to love a man in a suit!) 

They also talked a bit about Prop 2 - the proposition up for vote in California this election. This is a huge initiative by the animal welfare organizations in this country and I am asking anyone reading this that lives in California, to PLEASE, vote YES on Prop 2. Let's at least give these creatures we raise for consumption the luxury of being able to stretch their legs, stand up, and turn around. That is all this initiative will cover, and it's a huge start, so please, let's do this one little thing for the animals!

The event was hosted in downtown D.C. and had a huge vegan buffet that was absolutely delicious! It was so much fun to get all dressed up and support a great cause!

Dog Park and Halloween Surprise

Yesterday was such a gorgeous day, so we took the dogs to the dog park. We met an adorable little 4-month-old puggle there named Toby. He really wanted to play with Ava and Ava kept looking at me like, um... get him off me! But he was adorable:

And here's a video:

Then we came home and had a package waiting for us! And when I say "us" I mean the dogs. :-) My mom sent them a Halloween care package complete with cookies, a new toy, and a new shirt for Ava! The shirt was super cute, but a little small, but I made her wear it for pictures anyway.

And here's a video of the kids playing with their new toy:

Thanks Mom! It was so sweet of you! (And thanks for our DVDs back and the candy for us, too)

Halloween Decorating

Halloween is getting so close! Joe and I have been going to thrift stores and costume stores the last couple days trying to put together our costumes. We decorated a couple weeks ago, so I thought I'd share!



I even decorated my desk space at work! I've received a lot of compliments on my "festiveness".

I'm trying to keep everyone in line regarding costumes. I hope everyone mans up and actually dresses up like they say they will. I'm thinking I'll wear my 50's waitress costume from last year to work. It was a big hit last year... Outside of work, Joe and I are thinking about being gunslingers! Fun, huh?

Anyone back home planning their Halloween?

Jack's Soccer Skills

Jack LOVES his soccer ball and his soccer skills are definitely improving! He has almost cleaned the entire ball of it's cover... we pick up plastic pieces all day every day.

Alexandria

Joe and I took a drive out to Alexandria, VA last night after work to conduct my first home visit for IG Rescue. It's such a big responsibility - I have to interview the people and check out their house and determine if they would be acceptable IG parents. Luckily, this first one went extremely smoothly. They were a nice couple who had owned an IG before, so they knew all about the breed, and also had an 8-year-old Weimaraner who needed a companion. :-) It was a long drive out there, but it was kind of fun venturing out of our comfort zone.

Joe had an interview with another chiropractor yesterday and it went really well. He loved the practice and got along well with the other doctors and thinks this could be a place where he could learn a lot about the business. They asked him to follow up with them today, so wish him luck!

Saturday I went to Walk for Paws, a fundraiser for Howard County Animal Rescue, and helped run a table for Italian Greyhound Rescue with the IG Rescue Rep, Serena. We had a great time, met a lot of great people and potential adopters, so it was a success. I had a great photo of the whole booth, with Serena sitting with her dog, but occasionally photos become pixilated on my phone after I take them (so frustrating!) so I don't have it. And the one Serena took of me, she got her big fat thumb in it:

It was so much fun watching all the different dogs come through. We saw Big Greys and Whippets and even some other IGs:

And then we saw this big guy! Seriously, the biggest dog I have ever seen. I couldn't quit asking his owner about him. Turns out he weights 206 pounds!

It turned out to be a really beautiful day, and of course, I didn't bring sun screen so I came home with a horrendous sunburn on my face. But it was worth it, it was a really nice day. 

Joe worked another fair this weekend, this time in Thurmont. He worked 10 hours both yesterday and today. But that will be the last time he has to do something like that... at least for this employer. Joe has decided to quit and look for something that better meets his expectations as a chiropractic assistant, as well as look for a chiropractor to work for that he can trust, respect, and learn from. Wish him luck on his job hunt!

Dog Park

We found this awesome new dog park in our area. It's the only dog park we've found that has a small dog area - and since Ava got bowled over a couple times at other dog parks, this was a good find. I took a few pictures of the kiddos. They are just such great dogs! You can see I'm wearing my glasses - I'm wearing them more and more... especially at night. The small dog area is supposed to be for dogs 25 lbs and under, so Jack had to go to the big dog part. But after a while, we brought him over to the small dog park, after clearing it with the other small dog owners. It's amazing how much Ava comes out of her shell when Jack is there with her. She sticks right by me, asking to get held, when Jack's not there. When he is, she ventures out, meets other dogs and explores. She feels much more confident with her big brother there. I can understand that. :-)

Police Station

Joe had to go to the police station yesterday for work. He offered free massage to the police officers and he said he has never massaged someone before who was armed. He mentioned to the officers that he had never seen the inner workings of a police station before - he had never been that far inside.... they said that was a good thing. :-) He snuck a couple pictures, so he didn't get any of himself, but here is what he took:




I had to drop him off at 7:00 for this appointment, so we both had an early morning.

Weekend Update

I should really start updating more regularly, especially on weekends, because my weekend updates seem to be really long. But here goes. I attended my first company picnic on Saturday. Everyone from the company was invited, and it ended up being pretty fun. I made pasta salad and it was a hit - to my surprise. :-) My coworker, Alana, rode with me to the picnic. She is the one in this picture, in the middle, with the long blond hair. She made me tell everyone that we made the pasta salad together because she forgot to buy cookies.

It turned out to be a really nice day. Some people played kickball, but mostly we just sat around and chatted. I brought Ava, and of course, she was the hit of the party. :-)

I was so bummed that Joe couldn't come with me. He has heard so much about the people I work with, and they have heard so much about him, that it would have been nice to introduce everyone. But, once again, Joe had to work this weekend. He worked a fair in Frederick, about a 1/2 hour away from our apartment. He was VERY busy during the fair.

Sunday, we got together with Stuart, who moved to the DC area last week. He is settling in well and liking being here. It was SO good to see him! We picked him up from the Metro station and took him on a tour of our little town. We showed him where both of us work, and drove him by the HSUS - where he has also applied. Then, we went to a local bar to watch some football and get some lunch. I wore my Seahawks shirt to show some hometown pride and they got annihilated by the Giants. Too bad. Good thing I don't really care about football. (Oh, I don't know if you can see the guy in the background in the Indian outfit? His name is Chief Z. He's a local celebrity around here - he's sort of part of the Redskins 'team'.)

Then we went back to our apartment so Stuart could see the dogs. Ava went bonkers when she saw her Uncle Stuart. It was pretty cute.

Then, we roped poor Stuart into helping us set up our webcam so we could talk to Joe's parents. We finally figured most of it out after about 2 hours. :-) He was such a good sport. So, we took him out for a fabulous vegan meal to thank him.

So, that was our weekend. Hope yours was good too!

Wednesday

It's Wednesday, and there is not much going on, but I thought I'd update you anyway. Workwise, let's see... well, I've been given the task of being "Santa" for work this year. It's pretty cool. Birthday in a Box sells these letters from Santa that you can buy for your children that comes in this cool scroll thing and tied with a velvet rope with a sleigh bell on it. I guess not a lot of people in the company like to take this particular project on, because it's a lot of writing and a lot of work - but I'm sure you could guess that I was pretty excited! To me, it's never too early to think about Christmas!

Speaking of holidays, it's now October which means it's officially Halloween season! I told Joe that I will be decorating the house today and he was in disbelief that I would start this early. I told him that I was making myself wait until it was October, so he better be happy I didn't start decorating a month ago! I've found only a couple people who planned to dress up for work, which really dissappointed me. We're a birthday company people!! We should be in to this stuff! But I told my department that I expect them to dress up (including my supervisor). I said, "I know I'm not the head of this department, but I expect all of you to dress up!" I think I've convinced them. :-)

Stuart flies in tonight. He was planning on staying with us the first night, but got his apartment secured early, so he's going to just move directly in. I'll see him this weekend. I'm excited for him to be here, but sad that he's going to take the Wii from us. :-( So selfish, that's me.

Last night we had a rain storm with thunder and lightening. We had the windows open so we could hear everything. The thunder and lightening didn't bother the dogs at all, but I think they got a little chilly. :-)




Joe has been busy with getting ready for school to start. He has 5 credits to go on his Bachelor's degree and he got registered for the classes yesterday. He's taking a literature class and a music class. Then he has to write a thesis. I think he's doing it on knee injuries... He's going to be SO happy to get that finally out of the way. He finished graduate school and became a doctor before he got his Bachelor's. Funny boy.