McGee's First Hockey Game

For Christmas, I bought Kevin tickets to go see his first hockey game!  And the game was this past Saturday.  I tried to find a good game for us to go see, and I thought for sure that the Philadelphia Flyers would slaughter Tampa Bay's hockey team!  I mean, what does Tampa Bay know about hockey?!?  So I thought that'd be a great game for McGee's first hockey game, because I wanted a suuuuuure win.

He was excited!!

Our seats were pretty high up... But we could still see great!

Welllllll.... It turns out that Tampa Bay might know something about hockey.  Maybe.  The Philadelphia Flyers lost 3-6.  It was quite a bummer....

Sad face!

And then on Sunday, we watched football all day, and rooted for the 49ers (they won!!), and my Chargers of course.  McGee made me some "Chargers Juice" for good luck during the game, and it had rum and blue curacao and some other stuff that I can't remember... 

Chargers Juice!

Sadly, the luck from the Chargers Juice did not work... and they lost.  It ended up being a really exciting (aka STRESSFUL) game, but they lost.  I'm happy they got to the playoffs though!!  Now I'll root for the 49ers to take the whole thing.  And I always always always root for the Patriots to lose (I hate Tom Brady and the Patriots).  

Our house hunting is continuing... We just went and saw another rental property today, and the backyard was amazing.  The rest of the house needed some work though... and the doors didn't look very safe.  It was super close to McGee's work, but that's kind of a good thing (commuting) and a bad thing (safety...).  There are some shady neighborhoods right around where McGee works, but the hospital he works at is in a very safe part of town.  I can't wait for our house hunting to be over... I'm ready to settle into a nice house!  I'm SO sick of our apartment complex (in case I haven't mentioned that recently...).  

Guinness is 11 months old!

Our dear boy turned 11 months old a few days ago!  I can't believe how close he is to 1 year old.  He's pretty much fully transitioned to Adult dog food now.  He is shedding like a mofo right now... In fact, in that picture above you can see little tufts of his fur by his back leg that are popping out!  We were starting to get kind of worried by it (since it's Winter and all...), but he still has TONS of thick fur, so I don't think it's thinning or anything.  Oh, also in that picture above you can see that he fully hops up on our ottoman now!  He barely fits... If he grows any more, his butt won't fit on there.  

Yesterday I had a very not-fun day with poor Guinness... By the time McGee got home from work, I was at the end of my rope and kinda lost it crying a bit.  It was SO cold yesterday (this was the day when it reached a high of like 15 degrees, and the low ended up being -2 degrees), and Guinness's poor paws were not doing well with the really freezing temperatures and all of the salt all over the sidewalks (the salt can burn their paws).  I was trying very hard to keep him off of the salt, but it's literally impossible.  So, that resulted in pitiful limping by poor Guinness after a few minutes outside... We'd only stay outside long enough for him to go to the bathroom (no walks at all yesterday! Poor guy), and then we'd head back inside and I'd clean off his paws.  It was so sad every time I had to take him out.  

And then to REALLY top off the day... After we got back from one trip out (about 30 or 45 minutes before McGee got home), a black dog came running down the hallway on our floor and attacked Guinness. It was snarling at him and growling and biting at him... I saw the owner start running towards us when he saw his dog coming after mine.  I was yelling at the dog and trying really hard to get Guinness away from it, but it wasn't working too well since the other dog wasn't on a leash.  I was trying to put myself between the dog and Guinness... probably not bright, but that was my instinct.  I wish my instinct had been to drop-kick the other dog!  The owner finally caught up to his dog and pulled it away from Guinness.  He apologized and said that his dog is "usually friendly".  Poor Guinness was just standing there next to me, very confused... He really seemed like he didn't understand what just happened.  We've thoroughly checked him out and he seems fine, except for a small wound on his leg.  Our poor little guy... We're keeping a close eye on him, and we've been in touch with the owner of the other dog (he's the friend of our new neighbors... We HATE our new neighbors, by the way).  He assured us that his dog has all of his shots and everything, and he gave us his vet's info (he uses the same vet as us, so that's handy), so we double-checked that his dog is thoroughly up-to-date on his shots.  And the owner promised to keep his dog on a leash from now on. Ugh. 

Sooooooooo today we went house-hunting for a rental to move into.  I'm SO over this apartment complex.  Right now, we're hoping February 1 as a move date, even though our lease here isn't up until mid-March. We saw one house today that we like a lot (in Flourtown, PA) and we also saw 2 houses that are a definite "No".  We're hoping to look at a few more this week, and then decide.  I'll keep you all posted!  

I hope you're all staying warm!  

Happy New Year!!

We had a very chill New Year's Eve this year, and it was great.  We just stayed home and ate a bunch of appetizers, and I drank champagne and McGee drank beer.  We watched movies and spent time with Guinness, and I think we were asleep by 12:30!  I may have been more like 12:15, because I had to take 2 Benadryl due to a small allergic reaction I was having (I'm quite allergic to band-aid adhesive...).  It was a really perfect evening though (aside from that allergic reaction thing).

All 3 of us slept quite late for us (9am!!  Yay Guinness!!  And yay Benadryl!), which was great except that we had to catch a 9:54 train into downtown Philly.  So we quickly took Guinness out and fed him, and got VERY bundled up to head into town.  It was around 25 degrees for most of our day outside, so the warm clothes were necessary!!

When we arrived into town, we found a good spot to stand and watch the Mummers Parade!!  It's a parade held every New Year's Day in Philadelphia, and it's taken place every year since 1901.  I don't know much about the parade, except that there's a competition in different categories, and there's 3 or 4 categories.  There's "Fancies" (these were my favorite) that had very elaborate costumes, "String Bands" which are awesome bands that put on fun costumes too, and I don't remember the other category or categories.  Two of our friends (Timmy and Kate) joined us a bit later in the parade, and they brought red solo cups so we could drink the bottle of champagne that McGee brought!  Here are some fun pictures from the day!!

I think these guys were shrimp or lobsters or crayfish or something?

My favorites were the Nemo hat people!  A lot of them carried frog umbrellas too.  If you look closely in this picture, you'll see the RV in the background is handing out beers to the parade participants.

It's a baby crayfish (or whatever) asleep in a stroller!  Too cute.  

Look at the fun frog umbrellas!  And that beautiful Philadelphia skyline.

A fun crocodile thing!  I liked this "Fancy".  

A peacock!

A circus themed group.

This cop near us started smoking a cigar a bit later in the parade.  He also didn't mind that we were drinking champagne out of red solo cups.  

Aladdin in the background!  

After the parade, we walked back to Timmy's place where he and his roommates were throwing a New Year's Day party!  There was more champagne and 2 kegs, and lots of yummy food, including these delicious chocolate cookies with Rolo candies baked into the middle!  It was really great to spend some time hanging out with Timmy and Kate.  

After a few hours a the party, we headed back to our shit-hole apartment to hang out with our dear Guinness and spend some time taking down all of our Christmas decorations.  Our apartment is officially de-Christmased!  I'm sad the holiday season is over, but it was definitely a great one this year.  

Oh, fun fact for all of you people in warm-ish locations:  It is going to be TWO degrees this Friday.  They've been going back and forth between 2 and 4 degrees, but either way it's completely ridiculous.  I hope everyone is having a great 2014 so far, and staying warm!  Happy New Year!!

Christmas!!

I just got back from California yesterday, and I had an AMAZING time there.  The weather was lovely during my whole trip (highs in the low 60s... Pretty perfect, if you ask me!), and it was really nice to thaw out for awhile.  As always, it was amazing to see my friends and family, and I had SO much fun.  Those 9 days at home flew by!!  I can't believe Christmas is already over...

I did everything from my Christmas Bucket List!!  Here it is if you want to see it again:

I think you all saw in my previous post that McGee and I got a Christmas tree and decorated our crappy apartment.  I saw ALL of my favorite Christmas movies this year, and I also saw Polar Express for the first time and we made the Polar Express Cocoa to drink while watching it!!  I don't know how many of you have seen Polar Express, but I didn't love it... I thought it was weird, and it just wasn't my thing.  I don't think it'll be in my Christmas must-see list... But I did LOVE the hot cocoa!!  If any of you need a really rich and delicious (and high-calorie) hot cocoa recipe, just let me know!!  It was amazing, though I think it was a bit too much chocolate for McGee to handle (What a rookie.... Just kidding, my love!!).  I finished making gifts for 2 out of the 3 people I wanted to make gifts for, so I'll make that third one next year.  I also sent out Christmas Cards, and I helped my mom with holiday baking!  She did 95% of it, but I helped a tiny bit... Mainly with decorating the butter cookies.  Here's my favorite one I did:

The cookie cutter is supposed to be a Santa hat, but if you turn it to the side I thought it looked like an elephant, so that's how I decorated it!  If you tilt your head to the left, I think you might be able to see the elephant... Maybe... Hopefully... 

Our Christmas Eve family party was an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party this year, and we had some good ones!  

My mom working hard in the kitchen.  It's hard to see her sweater, but it was great!

Here's my dad's awesome outfit!  

Brad and Amanda!!

The girls looking adorable, as always.  And that's Dad and Jim in the background, looking at Dancing Snoopy.

Here's my socks!  I didn't get any pictures of my sweater... 

Jim and Rhoda!!  Rhoda did a great job making her sweater.  

Kim and Nick!!  They made their sweaters, and Nick was the clear winner of our sweater contest!!  He had a pocket for his phone, and he had the fireplace app on his phone.  It was amazing.  

Traci and Kevin!  Yes, those are humping reindeer on his sweater!

On Christmas Day we just did a lot of relaxing, and Brad, Amanda, Cassidy and Addison came over later in the day.  We had a delicious dinner (prepared by Mom... she did a LOT of cooking over the holidays, if you can't tell!), and opened presents!  

I had to add this picture, because Addison's pouty face cracks me up!!  She's looking so serious.  

Here's the minion toys that McGee got for the girls!!  

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!!  

SNOW!!!!

So, I think you all know that I'm not the biggest fan of winters here... BUT, I was really looking forward to the first big snowstorm this year because I was excited to see what Guinness thought of snow!

On Sunday, we definitely got a big snowstorm.  I'm not sure how many of you saw the Eagles game on TV... which was played IN Philadelphia.. .but it was pretty much a whiteout at times.  Once the snow had slowed down a little bit, we headed outside with Guinness.  He was a little timid at first, and was really confused by it... and he was getting really confused by his footprints in the snow.

He's studying some of his footprints:

He started to really get into it though, and he loved burying his nose and face in the snow.  

Here he is watching McGee make a snowball... He was fascinated.

After playing in the snow by our apartment building for a bit, we decided to head over to the dog park, because maybe FOR ONCE it wasn't a muddy gross mess, so we wouldn't have to worry about Guinness eating mud and getting sick!  We were happy to see that nobody else had our brilliant idea, and Guinness had the whole dog park to himself.  He had SUCH a blast running around and playing in the snow, and so did McGee :)

I think this was the best day we've ever had with Guinness!  We all had SO much fun, and wow was Guinness exhausted when we got back to the apartment!!  It was an awesome day.  

On Tuesday it snowed again, and it was not as much fun... Probably because McGee and I both had to work.  I tried taking Guinness over to the dog park in hopes of it being awesome like it was over the weekend, but alas, it was a muddy gross mess again (I think many other dogs had made a mess of it with the previous snow). 

It's definitely Winter...

Today we're supposed to get some decent amounts of ice and snow later.  Booooooo.  Kevin and I have big plans to stay home and hibernate.  We're going to watch some football, and I'm going to work more on my Christmas cards to send to people, as well as the few homemade gifts that I'm trying/hoping to make.  I'm hoping I finish some stuff today!  Fingers crossed!

Yesterday we drove down to Wilmington, DE to go to my dentist appointment.  Kevin came for moral support... I was feeling quite nervous after my last dentist appointment, when I had 2 cavities!  I had NO cavities this time.  Yay!  So then we ran a few errands while we were in Wilmington, and we had lunch at our favorite bar there and watched Kevin's favorite soccer team (Tottenham - they won!).  It's a really awesome British Pub named Stoney's, and they make amazing food (and their fish and chips is award-winning... Kevin loooooves it).  And in the evening we went out to dinner with Kevin's parents for his Mom's birthday.  We went to an amazing Italian restaurant that's near our apartment that we didn't even know about!  The food was amazing, and it's a cute little family-run place.  We'll definitely be going back!

We drove back up to the Philly area and went grocery shopping, and guess what I saw at the grocery store!!  BUMBLE!!!  Yes, the amazing abominable snowman from Rudolph was there.  We're still hoping to eventually find some sort of Bumble tree-topper for our Christmas tree.

Not too much else has been going on... Guinness has been more of a handful than usual lately (and by "handful", I politely mean "pain-in-the-ass"... just so we're clear).  He just turned 10 months old, and when we went to his vet appointment and weighed him, we found that our boy is 60 pounds!  So Kevin had guessed exactly right.  Our vet wants us to start the switch from Puppy dog food over to Adult dog food, so we just started that switch last night.  Our guy is growing up!  

Something new about Guinness is that he loves to hop up on the ottoman.  He tries to fit his whole body on it, but he's too large (or our ottoman is too small...)... so most of the time he just puts his front legs and body on it, and his back legs are still on the ground.  

He stayed like this (laying on my feet on the ottoman, chewing on his blue bone) for about 20 minutes the other day.

(he's giving himself a bath here)

I think he's becoming such a handsome pup!  

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!  Try to stay warm!  

It's starting to feel like Christmas!

McGee and I have had a very festive weekend!  We picked out our tree yesterday!!  And today we decorated our crappy apartment, and decorated our cute little tree.  Our tree is about 2 and half feet tall, and we have it sitting on our dining room table (which is counter-height... so it's a tall one) to try to keep Guinness away from it.  He's a little too rambunctious for us to attempt a tree on the ground, or anywhere near the ground.  We've had some fun acquiring some cool Christmas ornaments for our tree, and it was really fun to decorate it!  We don't have a tree topper yet, so we took the Bumble ornament (from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) and put him on top of our tree.  It works, I think!  I actually think I'll look for a larger Bumble to use as an official tree topper, because I like him up there.

Here are our stockings!

Here's our tree (and yes, that's Animal from The Muppets.  We also have the Swedish Chef).

 Here's Bumble!

 Here's a cool ornament we got in Hawaii.  It's a gourd that's been stained with Kona coffee, and the fish is the Hawaiian fish (the humuhumunukunukuapuaa), which we saw all over the place while scuba diving.

Our awesome lobster ornament from our roadtrip to Maine!

Another ornament we got in Hawaii.  It's a sea turtle with a santa hat. 

 Here's Guinness totally behaving!  So far he doesn't seem interested in the tree at all. He is, however, very interested in the stockings hanging by the fireplace.

Speaking of our little (big) guy... He's turning 10 months old tomorrow!!  And we have a vet appointment for him tomorrow too because he needs a booster shot, so we'll finally find out his weight!  I'm taking bets if anyone wants to take a guess!!  My prediction is 63 pounds.  McGee is guessing 60 pounds.

I hope everyone's December is off to a good start so far!!