Renitarium

Yes it’s true. Football season is officially upon us. I love Sundays during football season. Nothing but relaxing, watching football, and eating snacks (just what I need)! Everything has to be done by noon so we can chill and get our money’s worth out of the NFL Season Ticket we purchase each year so J can see his beloved Steelers play. I will admit it is pretty cool to be able to watch any game we choose.

The pot roast is in the crock pot and it smells soooo good. We went to a craft fair this morning and the weather was beautiful. I bought a painted pumpkin and we bought Cosmo some dog treats from the tail waggers booth. Cosmo came with us today and everyone was coming up to us saying what a pretty girl she is and petting her. She was eating it up. She also got called Ass Man. So that’s her new nickname. J/J. Some guy at the tail waggers booth asked her name and when we said Cosmo he goes “Oh, Cosmo Kramer. The Ass Man” LOL. Of all the Seinfeld references, why does he choose to remember that particualr one? I mean don’t get me wrong, it is hilarious, but Cosmo is not an Ass Man. She’s a dainty little peach. 

Today we went to Waukesha, WI for the Highland Games. It’s a Scottish festival and it was such a nice day for it and we had a great time. I especially like watching the men in kilts throwing Scottish hammers and stones. It’s amazing how heavy those things are and how far those guys can throw ‘em. Not something you see every day. I had a beef sandwhich for lunch. Not necessarily Scottish food but it was delicious. The beef was cooked over a wood stove and was so tender and tastey. YUM. I also found a very unique decoration made out of wheat. I need to find a place to hang it.

Now to the title of my post. On the way back home we’re talking and what not when all of the sudden some alien creature from outer space showed up on our window. It was green, had huge bug eyes, and was super scary. I screamed, rolled up all the windows and thought I was going to have a heart attack. And don’t you know that thing hung on and stayed on the window for what seemed like forever. I told J we have to get home, lock all the windows and doors, we’re being invaded and I need to contact CNN! OMG I know it sounds silly but it really shook me up. Ewe, I still get the heeby geebies just thinking about it. Come to find out, J was right, and it was a praying mantis. The one we saw was green and “I tell you he was ten stories high if he was afoot.” Scared.the.crap.out.of.me.com. I hope I don’t see one of those again. In all my 38 years I’ve never seen one of those around here before and I hope to not see one again. This almost was the end of Ren. My heart is just now calming down and the sighting was well over 5 hours ago.

Can anyone tell me where the above quote is from?

I Tivo’d Greatest American Dog since I wasn’t able to watch it when it aired so I watched it last night. I was happy to see that Galazy didn’t have any injuries from the previous week’s stunt. Which for the record I totally thought was awful (they put the dogs in zip lines and made them “fly”). Tonight’s challenge was loyalty. Leroy is a beautiful dog, it’s his owner that needs some training. She is so over the top and is contantly in Leroy’s face making him high strung. I think the judges made the right choice tonight. Next week is the finale. I am rooting for Galazy or Presley to win. No offense to Andrew, but he is a little too attached to his owner and it’s not healthy. I’d like to think Cosmo would prefer me over someone else, but if I wasn’t around I’d hope she’d play and have fun with whoever is paying attention to her.

In other TV news, how great was the season opener of Gossip Girl? OMG, I xoxo GG! I haven’t watched 90210 yet but will this weekend. I don’t have very high hopes for it tho. I hope I am pleasantly surprised. I am waiting for the return of Dirty Sexy Money and Criminal Minds which had a huge cliff hanger ending.

I know we need the rain so on one hand I am happy that it’s raining today, but on the other hand it’s depressing. It’s damp feeling in the house, it’s dreary, and it makes me tired. We lucked out having sunshine every day while my MIL and SIL were here. The day they left the rain came. Not too much going on. Work, exercise, dinner, TV, bed. The usual circuit. I know, I know, pretty exciting.

Sometimes when someone asks me how I am, I respond with “fat and sassy”. It gets a few laughs and is something other to say than “fine”. I am really living up to that first part lately tho. I have eaten so much junk lately it’s not even funny. I feel disgusting and you’d think that would spring me into action, but no, I still have no motivation. My Europe trip will be here before you know it and I will still be fat, and not PH fat. UGH. It sucks all forms. I know it’s useless to ask “why me?” but that’s how I feel. Couldn’t a criminal or bad guy be the fatty and me not so much? I wonder what I did to deserve the burden of largeness. I know, I know, it doesn’t do a bit of good to spend time wallowing in it. Ok, so what to do. Share any motivational tips or tricks you have. I need all the help I can get. I wan to lose 47.5 lbs before our trip. I need to get cuttin’. HELP!

Today we headed to downtown Milwaukee and saw the Fonzie statue. If you didn’t know where to look for it, you’d miss it. It’s life size and apparently the Fonze is not that tall. It was in the middle of nowhere, which seemed kind of odd, but still cool nonetheless. Of course we took our picture with him and had our thumbs up. aaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

Afterwards we had lunch at Rock Bottom Brewery. A few minor hishaps (waiter dropped dishes on the table and splattered some food, burger not cooked enough) but all in all a good time. We then headed to the casino to try our luck at black jack. It’s a good thing J was lucky as he won the mony back that I lost. So we continue our winning streak at this casino. Yeah! SIL had some birthday luck and more than doubled her money at black jack. MIL had no luck at the slots tho.

We got our visitors back to the airport in time for their flight back home to sunny Florida only to find out that their flight had been delayed an hour and they will miss their connecting flight in ATL. So they will get in later than expected. Kind of sucks, but at least they made it back safely. It was a really nice visit and I hope we can all get together again very soon.

Happy Labor Day everyone! Today we took Cosmo to the corn maze in Spring Grove. I highly recommend it if you’ve never been. It was hotter than usual this year but we set out to get all 24 punches. About half way thru the heat was getting to Cosmo (and I won’t lie, to me as well) so Grammy, Cosmo, and Ren decided to head back and let J and his sister finish the rest. We found a cool spot under some trees and just relaxed and cooled off while waiting for them to return. They ended up finding their way out of the maze and got all 24 punches! Afterwards we enjoyed a cook out and played some board games. It was a nice family day and Cosmo enjoyed being able to go along, since she had been spending a lot of time cooped up while we were out and about the past few days.

Today we took the train downtown. On the train a friend of mine from grade school came up to me to say hi. What a blast from the past. She looks good and said she couldn’t see me and not say hi. Very nice to see her and see that she is doing well. I bet it’s been a good 15 years since I’ve seen her last. We took a water taxi to Navy Pier. It was nice and it was a beautiful day so we got lucky. Once at Navy Pier we ate at the Billy Goat Tavern (yes, even tho there’s hype about the Cubs’ curse). We enjoyed the day walking around Navy Pier and all the shops and enjoyed some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. We then took a bus down to State Street and did some shopping and walked back to Union Station to catch the train back home. I got my usual Smoothie from the Smoothy’s Shack. Yum! No RPW sighting on the train back, but we still managed to laugh and have a good time.

When we got back we went to our favorite pizza joint and the owner was nice enought to give us a pound of fresh dough for breakfast treats (fried dough called piza fritzs). On the way out someone was calling my name and it turned out to be my brother and SIL. Small world!

Today we went to the Walworth County Fair in Elkhorn Wisconsin. They were doing the antique car and tractor parade which we enjoy watching every year. There were more entries this year than in past years. Very cool. I will note that the Floridians had to move out of the sun as they were getting too hot. New to the craft area this year were wodden roses. They were really cool and my SIL and I both got a dozen in different colors. They spray them with potpourri rose-scented spray and they smell really nice. My SIL won a stuffed bear and J won me a stuffed dog by playing a water squirting game. We had a nice time seeing all the different exhibts and I even saw two swines culdding. It was so cute. We also all enjoyed a cup of Italian Ice. Yum!

Later that night we went to the local comedy club called Zaines. Patti Vasquez was the healiner but even the openers were good. One was Dr. Bill, supposedly a real doctor and he told a lot of medical jokes. Hysterical! It wasn’t that crowded and no smoking so that was real nice. Have I mentioned how much I love the no smoking in IL? Love it!!

Oh my. This was a great show! I highly recommend it to anyone that wants a good hardy laugh. It was hysterical! We had a great time - J included. I won’t give anything away, but it is very cool how they do things. I heard the movie is very good. I’ll have to rent it sometime and see how it differs from the play.

Did you think this was a movie title? I’m talking about my MIL and SIL who are coming out for a visit from FL. I’m really looking forward to it and we have a lot of fun stuff planned. Don’t worry if I don’t blog for a few days, I will be blogging old school and will post them when my visitors leave as I probably won’t be on the PC too much since I will be busy entertaining.

I got a letter in the mail today that Skippy Do has passed away. Skippy Do is the dog I was sponsering at Best Friends Animal Society. He came from a puppy mill in Arkansas and was bred to be a sled dog but he was born with a problem that made him walk on his tippy toes so he was useless to his breeders and just tossed aside. Luckily for Skippy Do he ended up at Best Friends. While he was never adopted, he was able to live out his life at the sanctuary surrounded by care givers that loved him. I know Skippy Do has crossed over the rainbow bridge and is now happily running thru beautiful meadows.

I am asking to sponser another animal in Skippy Do’s honor. I’m sure he’d want it that way.

If you are intersted in sponsering an anmial from Best Friends, check this out. They have animals other than dogs and cats that need sponsering if you are interested in helping birds or other types of animals.

Today I went for a manicure and pedicure at a new place since the place I usually go to is not answering their phone so I believe they might have went out of business. That sucks all forms as I liked that place. So I try the new place. It looks nice, the chairs are massagers which are awesome, so I’m thinking this is going to be ok. Well, the guy was nice enough, but it’s only him and his wife that work at the place and he had several customers. I had my pedi first. It was ok, but not great. He seemed to rush thru it, didn’t use the scrubby stuff and hot towels which is my favorite part, and he quickly went thru all of it. Next he did my manicure. He missed several cuticle cuts and rushed thru that as well. Oh and I don’t like color on my fingers, just my toes, and he got a stripe of red polish on one of my clear finger nails. So I’m sure you’re thinking, surely she spoke up and said something right? Wrong. He was so nice I just couldn’t do it. I know, I know. I need to work on that kind of stuff. I just tipped him and left. I know, SUCKER tatoo - right across my forehead. Live and learn.  I will not be back, even tho I told him I would. 

For lack of something to blog about today, you get to hear about my dinner. We put some chicken in the crock pot yesterday and for some reason it didn’t turn out good. It just didn’t taste good and almost seemed burnt, tho not sure how that could happen in a crock pot. So we ate it but both of us didn’t care for it. FF to today, it’s dinner time, the original plan was left over chicken. Neither of us were very excited by the idea. We took it out of the fridge, looked at it, and looked at each oher, and then decided we were going out. The chicken went into the old garbage. We ended up at Panera for sandwhiches. It was much better than the icky chicken.

Today I went to see The Rocker with Rainn Wilson from The Office. It was really funny and I recommend it for a good laugh and a good story. It’s about a guy that got ousted from a band and 20 years later still wishes things would have turned out differently. The trailer made it look pretty cheesy but I thought it was really good and I laughed out loud a lot. Tho, I laugh a lot and have a good sense of humor so it might not be for everyone.

I’m not looking forward to work tomorrow. But when am I ever other than on pay day.

Oh, I almost forgot…So a girl I went to school with is a waitress at this local establishment and I don’t like going there because of that but J really wanted to go so I said ok. What do you know, just my luck, she’s working and we think we get seated in her section. So we quick go up to the hostess and ask to be moved. J goes “Can we move to another table in the other room? LD* is working and we don’t like her.” The hostess says we weren’t in her section but J goes “She has the table behind us and that’s close enough. Can we get another table or not?”. OMG, I could have died. Could he just have said we’d like another table and not give the reason? Needless to say I will not be going back there. I told J I’m surprised you didn’t tell them the reason we don’t like her is that she sticks her finger in her butt and asks people to smell it.

*name has been changed to protect the “smell my pocket“.

So today we are at our friendly neighborhood Applebee’s enjoying lunch when across the way some yahoo takes a call on his cell phone, which is bad enough in itself, but he is talking REALLY loud. “OMG!” “You’re kidding me?” “No way!” “You’ve got to be kidding!” All the while I’m thinking those same exact things! I couldn’t help but hear his entire conversation. Someone’s dog did some stuff in someone’s bed and the person he was talking to didn’t like it apparently. When he finally told the person “I have to go, I’m in a restaurant”, I felt like standing up and appluading, but I kept my cool. So he’s with this chick, not sure if they are dataing or what, and he goes “So that was the ex.” and she said “I figured that, why was she calling?” and he goes, “oh we vent to each other all the time”. Uh huh, and I’m sure that’s all they do too. Anyway, it was very rude to talk on the phone for that long in a public place, not to mention how loud he was talking nor the language he was using. It was some entertainment while I watied for my food to come I suppose. Oh, and his date left for the little girl’s room like 10 times and I’m not exaggerating by much. And this guy just got done spending $400 at Ikea.

Birthday shout outs to my bro and my friend Ev. Have a good one!!

Check out Cosmo on Dogster! I plan to add more stuff as I get time, but for now check it out and leave her a bone if you want to. I know she’ll appreciate it.  Happy Friday!

“Pay me $1 a year because my salary doesn’t matter. I have all the money I need. I’m here because I want to make a contribution.”

– Stan Smith

I’d like to know what Stan is smokin’. Pass it around, don’t be a hog!

Happy birthday little one. I am so lucky you came into our lives. You fit in with our lifestyle so perfectly. I can’t remember life before you and can’t imagine life without you. You bring us so much joy. You make us smile and remind us not to take life too seriously. You are always ready for adventure but are also just as content to lay around the house. Your manners are impeccable and you are such a treasure. Four years ago when we first set eyes on you at the Humane Society I just knew you were the one we’d been searching for. You looked up at us with those beautiful brown eyes and you melted our hearts. I don’t know what you’ve been thru before coming into our lives, but we musn’t dwell on the past. The present and future is where it’s at and I intend to make it the best life possible for you. Enjoy your special day today and the coming year. I look forward to spending each and every day together. Thank you for being the best doggie daughter anyone could ask for.

Support Rescue. If you are considering getting a pet, please look at the shelters first. You’d be surprised how many puppies or kittens or purebreds they have there. We adopted Cosmo from the Wisconsin Humane Society. I highly recommend them. Here is a link to their website.

No, not me. It’s a movie I watched last night. With the Olympics on and me being like the only person I know not watching it, my choices for TV viewing were limited. So I watched this movie and ended up really liking it. It’s pretty funny and even tho Andy Dick is in it (I hate Andy Dick) it was still good.

Ren Quiz: What’s the worst movie you’ve ever seen? For me off the top of my head I’d have to say it’s a tie between The Village and Eyes Wide Shut.