So, this past week, we had a snowmageddon (I stole that from the Daily Show, haha). It was insane. A huge snowstorm over the weekend, followed by an even bigger blizzard the following Tuesday night into Wednesday. My office was closed Wednesday and Thursday.

I think the white stuff disoriented the cats. They were sort of crazy and were fascinated by the piles of snow outside of our door.

And then we created a monster. First of all, our cats pretty much have never expressed a desire to go outside, which is nice. I think we changed that now. Ferris seemed very curious and so we let him wander around on our back deck a little. There was no way he could get far because of the large piles of snow. He was pretty funny.

He didn’t last really long and wandered back to the door to go back inside after a couple of minutes. But now, he seems to dart over to the door when we head outside and he’s slipped out a couple of times. Ay-yi-yi. Oh well. It was fun to let him outside! Simone seemed  completely uninterested, haha.

It is still pretty blah outside. I don’t think the snow is ever going to melt and we are supposed to get plowable snow tomorrow again!! What the heck?

But, one of the best moments of my life happened this January. My niece was born! I’m very close to my brother and his wife. When my sister-in-law announced her pregnancy, I cried with happiness. I loved hearing about every aspect of her pregnancy. I loved feeling the baby move in her tummy after a competitive game of Wii bowling. And I do have to say that my sister-in-law looked amazing pregnant.

Neal and I hung out with my brother and his wife the day before she went into labor (of course we didn’t know it at the time). I got the word she went into the hospital around 1 p.m. on a Sunday and had her baby girl by 10:30 p.m. I went to visit them in the hospital the next day and fell in love. She’s beautiful and sweet and has that sweet baby smell. Neal and I have really enjoyed having a baby in the family. And I’ve never loved my brother more after seeing him with her. He’s a natural dad.

Since this is a public blog, I’m not going to post pictures of my niece’s face, and we’ll call her B. But I do have some photos to share that I took during a “photo shoot” with the new family that I can share.

I love baby feet. We put her in a little pink tutu and propped her up in the corner of their couch. She looked like an angel!

I love spending time with her, even if all she does is sleep right now, haha. She spit up on me during the Super Bowl and I didn’t even care! Her eyes are a slate blue, like my brother’s. They could still change, but I’m hoping they don’t!

This summer, we are going to the beach with my brother, his wife, my parents and B. I can’t wait! Oh, and my niece dogs are coming, too, haha. By that time she’ll be 5 months, so she should be smiling and laughing and all of that.

Anyway, to my friends, if you want more pictures of her, send me an email. She really is a gorgeous baby!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! Neal and I had a great Christmas, full of food and family. We got a lot of good loot, and hopefully gave some good loot, too.

Most of you have probably seen this, but here’s the picture for the Christmas card we sent out this year:

Isn’t she the cutest?!?!

I’m starting to think we should put Simone in some sort of modeling. How do you get involved with something like that? Any suggestions?

I cannot BELIEVE it’s going to be 2010 soon. Seriously, cannot believe it. Where has the year gone? We have New Year’s Eve plans with some friends and I’m really looking forward to spending time with friends, the love of my life and some champagne.

I’m going to be an AUNT!! Whoop Whoop! It’s pretty much the most exciting thing going on in my life right now, so excuse my enthusiasm!

Hopefully by February, we’ll have a little, screaming bundle of joy to baby-sit. But the main reason I’m telling you is because my mom and I made a bangin’ diaper cake for my sister-in-law’s shower. I have to show it to you!

Here’s the deal – a diaper cake is not actually cake you can eat. No fake poop made of chocolate icing, OK? A diaper cake is made up of diapers, bundled to look like cake tiers. Usually assorted baby stuff is put on it, like lotion, rattles, onsies, washcloths, etc. I knew I wanted to make one for Amanda’s shower, and I was very excited with how it turned out!

Isn’t it the cutest?!?!

Anyway, I attached a rattle and a onesie, and wrapped some lotions and things in tissue paper.

I think Amanda really liked it, and it was a pretty centerpiece at the shower!

I have a feeling that with all my married friends, I’ll have a lot more opportunities to make these. Think my mom and I should go into the diaper cake business?

HEHE, anyway, the reason for my renewed interest in blogging is because I have to tell you about “Shutter Island” by Dennis Lehane. Holy crap, this book is awesome.

I heard that a movie based on this book is coming out in February. Leonardo Dicaprio is in it, and that means Neal will want to see it (he’s got a a man crush on Leo, I think), and so I wanted to read the book first. After getting it at the store, I also realized it’s written by the same guy who wrote “Mystic River,” which is also an amazing book.

Anyway, this book rocked my socks off. I read it in two days because I couldn’t put it down. Quick summary – these two U.S. Marshalls are on this island off the New England coast which houses a hospital for the criminally insane. It’s set in the 50’s. Anyway, the U.S. Marshalls are there to investigate the breakout of a patient who drowned her three children. They start their investigation and shit gets really weird really fast. Oh man. I loved this book. I kept thinking I had the twists figured out, and then I was wrong!

I couldn’t sleep Sunday night, because I kept having these horrible thoughts that these doctors were going to drag me away to the madhouse and drill into my brain.

Anyway, here’s the trailer with Neal’s boyfriend Leo. It looks freaky, and if it’s HALF as good as the book, it’ll be awesome.

After much deliberation, Neal and I purchased a set of stainless steel cookware. Of course, I love nonstick cookware, and we do have some that my brother and his wife bought for us a while ago. But I really wanted a good set of stainless steel cookware. It does a better job browning meats, creating nice crusts, etc. I also wanted a set that could be taken off the stovetop and right into the oven.

I was really excited about the cookware we bought, and still love it to pieces. I seriously feel like a chef on The Food Network when I use it!

Anyway, Neal and I have noticed lately that it really needed a good deep cleaning. The skillets and saucepans were forming a pretty gross film, and Neal was having a heck of a time cooking his eggs in them, when he normally doesn’t have a problem. I mean, we use soap and water and scrub them after each use, but it just wasn’t working very well anymore.

I bought some stainless steel cookware cleaner and went to it today. I was amazed at the results.

I will say that Neal told me to take pictures of this. I kind of didn’t want to because I didn’t want to admit how gross I let my pans get. Although if you really know me, this probably doesn’t surprise you too much, haha. Anyway, here’s the before:

I know! Totally gross! I hadn’t actually used this pan in a while because of this. Or I would only use it for sauces or something that wouldn’t stick.

And here’s after scrubbing with the Pampered Chef stainless steel cookware cleaner:

Looks like a whole new pan, right?!?!

I was so freakin’ excited. I feel like I get disappointed by products all the time, so when something works, it makes me pretty giddy. These seriously made my weekend! Look how pretty that pan is!!

I celebrated with a scrumptious toasted cheese sandwich.

Our neighborhood is like a trick-or-treat mecca. They bus ‘em in, man. I’m serious. It was raining when trick-or-treating started at 6, but we already had two families by 6:05. The rain let up about a half hour later, and it was like a free-for-all.

I really like handing out candy. I loved trick-or-treating when I was little, so I think it’s really important to hand out candy if we are home. I also LOVE looking at kid’s costumes. There were some really great costumes this year!

Here’s Simone looking for the trick-or-treaters with a treat of her own.

Here were some of my favorite trick-or-treaters:

– A little girl dressed as Dorothy. She had the curled, pigtailed-long hair and a little basket with a stuffed dog inside. It was funny because she couldn’t fit the candy in her basket because the dog took up all the room!

– Twin boys dressed as bugs. These kids were probably not even two, and they were stinkin’ adorable. They tottered down our driveway with their bags of candy. Their parents had these monkey backpack things that had leashes attached. I think that’s kind of weird, but when the one kid tried to push his way into our house, I was glad the dad could pull him back with the leash, haha. The boy’s name was Anderson and he was trying to get to our cats.

– Princesses. Oh geez. Multiple, elaborate princesses. Makeup, updos. The whole shebang. Maybe I should start a princess-costume-making business, because it seems lucrative.

– A little boy dressed as a bear. Only his face was peeking out and he was pretty much the cutest thing ever. Neal was standing at the door and I was in the kitchen. Neal yells from the door “Hey, Megan, come here, you have to see this kid!….. Oh no!…. Oh, he just fell in the grass!…. Oh, he’s getting up now….. He’s kinda wet now……” HAHA, it was pretty funny. He was adorable. I came to the door and the fall must not have fazed him. “Hi!” he yelled. His mother, who looked exhausted, said that he kept running because he was so excited and this was not the first time he had fallen that night. HAHA!

Can ya tell I enjoyed handing out candy? We bought three large bags and only have half a bag left. It was a madhouse! The only thing that slightly peeved me was that we had some double dippers. I really didn’t care about the little kids, but there was this one scary-looking goth/witch teenager with her little sister. They came up the door and I said “Oh, hey, I remember you, but that’s OK, I’ll give you more candy.” The teenager just stared at me. I said “Don’t you remember me?” (I mean, they were seriously at my house about 20 minutes ago). The teenager said “No” and held out her bag of candy. She kind of freaked me out so I hurried up and gave her candy so she didn’t put a spell on me or something.

For dinner, I made some shrimp scampi. It was scrumptious, but I got distracted by trick-or-treaters and the top got a little burnt, haha. And sorry for the crappy picture. I was starving and just wanted to eat!

And to get in the fall mood, I made some pumpkin muffins with cream cheese icing. Oh boy, are these things good! I got the recipe here.

Sorry for the crappy picture. They do not do these justice. I’m telling you, make these things NOW! So good!

Hope you all had a good Halloween!

I have some foodie things to show first. First, Neal and I have a breadmaker that was given to us by family friends. We don’t use it real often. I would say that’s mostly because it takes about 4-5 hours, so I need to be able to be home for long stretches. But I made some crusty honey French bread the other day, and it was really good!

I wish I would have taken some pictures once we cut the bread. It was really good! I think our breadmaker makes rather dense bread, although that could be the recipes I use. Either way, this was really good and very filling!

We had Neal’s parents and grandparents up the other weekend. We had a really nice visit! I made my lasagna, which was a hit. For dessert, I had viewed a recipe online for apple turnovers. I thought the recipe for the dough was interesting. It called for sweetened sour cream, which really gave the dough a nice tang. And it really came out like a flaky pastry crust dough.

Everyone seemed to really like these, so I must have done something right!

So… the Phillies are in the World Series. SO EXCITING! It’s been really fun watching the games. Tonight is Game 2 of the World Series, and the Phillies lead the series 1-0, since they won last night.

Since it’s Thursday, and the Phillies are on, I decided to make something fun. I had a lot of potatoes that I had to use up or they were going to go bad, so what better to make than a mashed potato bar! So Neal and I made salads, and then we had mashed potatoes with some fixin’s – bason bits, chives, cheese and sour cream. Yum!

When I have a mashed potato bar, I make them and then throw the batch in the crockpot on low, covered. It really helps to keep them fresh and fluffy.

OK, so I’m off to watch the game now. LET’S GO PHILS!!

Simone’s excited!

Well, the Eagles should have won. They were playing a terrible team, haha.

Here’s hoping the Phillies win tonight!

OK, so I have some kitty updates! I realized I haven’t post about my blog namesakes for a while. Ferris and Simone are good. We have some stray cats in our neighborhood that keep getting onto our deck and staring in our back door at our cats. I don’t like that, because it freaks our cats out, but Neal and I have tried to be vigilante at watching out for these cats. Anyone have any recommendations on something we can spray around our deck to keep out the stray cats, but that also won’t be harmful to our cats if we let our doors open? I’m really getting tired of the drama caused by these stray cats.

Neal and I have been noticing that the litter box we have is too small. I really liked it. It kind of looked like a spaceship/pod thing, but both Ferris and Simone couldn’t seem to go without sticking their heads and front legs out the front. And Ferris would literally almost lift up the lid if he stood up in it.

So we decided to get them a new box. We measured ours to make sure the one we got was bigger. We are happy with the new box we got. And we also bought a mat to try to minimize the stray litter.

The litter box has a door on it, but we wanted to get them used to the box before putting the door on.

P.S. – I realize I’m lame for posting about my cats’ litter box. But seriously, do you really expect anything else from me?

OK, and we also bought them some cat grass. It’s not catnip; it’s grass that is OK for cats to eat, and is supposed to help them with digestion. They fought over this stuff and really seemed to love it.

I think it’s wheat or oat grass. Either way, it really kept them busy for a while. And there was definitely some midnight snacking.

And here is a picture of Simone trying to hide under our football table (we call it that because it has leather accents on the top that look like football laces).

And Ferris kept meowing at our hamper until I tipped it over for him. He dashed into it and it started rolling back and forth with him in it. It was pretty funny and he seemed like he was having a good time!

So anyway, that’s all for now. The Eagles have a bye week this week, so we are just watching a little bit of each game that is on. I really love Sundays. Does Monday really have to follow it?

Anyway, here are a couple of things my body is experiencing right now:

1. I have a knot on my right ankle that is red and getting bigger. The kickballs they used were HUGE and I pretty much kicked it with my ankle every time.

2. I have a semi-bloody brush burn on my wrist. Origin is unknown.

3. My arms are very tired. I had trouble washing my hair in the shower a minute ago and I’m concerned about my ability to do laundry later tonight. This is caused by pumping my arms while running my ass off and doing the ol’ wheel-arm move to wave people to run.

4. My legs have pretty much peaced out for the day. I stumbled walking down the stairs and am not sure I’m going to be able to get up to walk to the kitchen to get dinner. I might need Neal to feed me where I sit.

5. My head is pounding from squinting since I forgot to bring my sunglasses.

So yeah, I’m not in good shape at the moment. I didn’t do horrible today. I made a lot of mistakes, but I also made some pretty good plays.

Neal, as always, was a hit. Here are three compliments he was given today:

1.” Neal IS our ringer!”

2. “Your husband is a great athlete. Did he play soccer?”

3. “He is chiseled.” (This was my personal favorite)

HA!

OK, so I’m going to sign off now. My plan is to pretty much be a vegetable tonight. I just want to sleep the next two days, since my body is really going to let me have it tomorrow. Ugh.

I’m sorry!

First of all, my blog kind of got hacked into and Neal had to work some magic to fix it. And then I just decided to take a hiatus. But I’m back! And better than ever, baby!

I have fabulous pictures from an AMAZING night to show you. I feel bad I haven’t shown you these earlier. Here’s the deal – Neal and I LOVE the show “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” It’s a comedy that’s on FX Thursday nights. I kind of call it the anti-”Friends” (you know that show). Basically it’s a group of friends that own a bar. They are all self-absorbed and backstab each other and other people. They never get ahead and every episode ends with them at the same point in their lives, if not worst. Sound depressing? It’s not, it’s AWESOME and HILARIOUS. Neal and I love it.

So, to promote the new season, the cast traveled to a couple cities and performed last season’s finale LIVE on stage. The creator is from Philadelphia and the night of the premier, they were performing in Philly. The show sold out in 30 seconds and Neal was not able to get tickets. I guess because of popular demand, they added a second show in Philly that same night at 11 p.m. SOMEHOW, even though the tickets sold out again in seconds, Neal was able to get tickets. He rules!

So we headed to the Tower Theater in Upper Darby two weeks ago on a Thursday to attend the show, called “The Nightman Cometh.” Even though we had tickets, we still stood in line. There is a song that everyone knows from the show, called “Dayman” that a character wrote and performed on the show. While standing in line, random performances of “Dayman” kept breaking out. It was pretty funny.

Charlie is my favorite. I love his character and I love him.

Yes, that’s Danny Devito. The name on the poster is his character’s name.

Neal and I bought special shirts for the shower. I’m not going to bother to explain them, because if you aren’t a fan of the show, it’s not going to make sense, haha.

Greenman what the character Charlie becomes when he dresses in an all body, green lycra costume. Big fan favorite. There were several Greenmen at the show.

We got into the theater a little after 10:30. There was a makeshift “Paddy’s Pub” set up, which is the name of the bar the gang owns in the show.

We saw one of our college friends there, and of course, he was a Greenman, hahaha.

And then the show started. The theater was PACKED. First we watched an episode from this coming season. It was so cool to watch an episode with hundreds of other “Sunny” fans, because everyone laughed at the right times. Like, we all just GOT IT. So cool.

And then the cast cast came out and performed last season’s finale episode. It was unreal to see the cast live, and it was extra cool to watch in the show’s hometown. The creator is from Philly and the show is shot in Philly.

So anyway, it was honestly the coolest thing. It was a long night. We didn’t get home until 3 a.m. But it was SOOOO worth it. Neal’s awesome for being able to get tickets, and I’ll truly never forget the experience.

“Sunny” rules!!!

Well, lately, I’ve been utilizing the awesomeness that is frozen shrimp. Our grocery store has had frozen shrimp on sale recently, so we like to buy the 2-pound bags of large shrimp. I get two meals out of that and it’s a good lean meat.

I also have finally broken in my new Pampered Chef cookbook. Some of the recipes aren’t that appealing to me, or they are too calorie-heavy, but there are still some really good ones in there.

The first one, which I made last week, was grilled shrimp with lemon orzo. I had orzo pasta in my pantry for a while and just didn’t see a recipe I liked. So I decided to make this recipe. It was pretty easy and I thought it all tasted really good.

Yum! Next time, I’ll go easier on the lemon juice, as this was pretty lemon-y. But still very good. The best part? It was a one-pot meal. I love that!

Yesterday (Saturday) was a very, very rainy day. If Neal and I don’t have any plans on a Saturday night, then we like to go to the grocery store late at night (like between 10 and midnight; we’re losers). It’s not crowded and we can take our time. So I had to make dinner with whatever I had in the house. I once again perused my Pampered Chef cookbook and found a recipe for parmesan crusted shrimp with spaghetti. I had a block of parmesan cheese in the frig, plus frozen shrimp, pasta and pasta sauce. I sent Neal and out in the rain to grab me some parsley from our herb garden and I was good to go to make this!

I really loved this dinner. I had to grate the parmesan cheese, then cook it in a thin layer in a skillet until it was lacy and golden brown. Then, once it was cool, I broke it up into crumbs. Then I put these crumbs over the shrimp and baked it. It was so good! I will definitely make this again, because it was relatively easy, used few ingredients and was quick.

Doesn’t that look good? It was seriously awesome.

I decided I’ll have to start cooking with shrimp more often!

What a weird weekend this was, right? It poured buckets all day Saturday, and then today (Sunday) is beautiful! Oh well, good football weather. First Eagles game of the season, so let’s go Birds!

It’s going to be Christmas before I know it.

Anyway, I know I’ve been MIA. I’m trying to enjoy the last of the warm weather (which seems to be steadily disapearing starting this week).

We had our parents and some friends over Sundy for a little Labor Day picnic. I took a bunch of pictures, but screw all my friends. The best pictures are of the babeh!

Yes, we had a babeh visit us and it was pretty cool.

This cutey is the love child of our friends Katie and Frankie. I posted pics a while back of Katie and I at her baby shower.

I zoomed in really close to get his cute little eyelashes.

And this was about the time he squeezed his eyes and made grunting taking-a-dump face, haha.

And here are their other, furry babies, Ollie and Sydney.

Anyway, I took more pictures, but I’m sure you’re really only interested in the baby, right? HAHA.

HAHA, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” was on TV last night. I’ve said this before, but it’s my favorite movie, hence our cats’ names. I love the character “Ferris Bueller.” Don’t we all wish we could be as carefree as him? I have a problem with not living in the moment. I’m always looking at what’s next, never really just paying attention to the present. Ferris, though? He’s all about the present, consequences be damned. I love that guy.

They’ve been playing all my favorite 80s movies on TV, because of the death of director John Hughes. This guy was a genius. I love his movies.

Anyway, it made me realize I really haven’t posted pics of the cats lately. What’s that about? Who knows. I don’t have any pictures of Ferris. Because he’s all black, it’s hard to get good shots of him. Simone’s a great model.

They still haven’t given up on Lobster Claw yet. They love this thing. Jodie, can you send me another one? HAHA!

And then Simone decided to pick up the weights. You know, do a little toning.

I love that cat.

OK, I’ll make it my mission to get some good shots of Ferris. I promise!

Like, I actually gag. Dry heave. I get the heeby cheebies. My skin starts crawling. I’m rendered unable to speak (well, I sort of squeal and whine). I mean, I really can’t stand insects – mostly large ones.

I have no idea why I’m like that, but insects just cause this physical reaction from me. I know it’s weird. Those damn gigantic cicadas are out right now, and I fear for my life every time I walk out my front door at night. They are attracted to our porch light.

Neal flicked one off our screen door and it screeched as it flew away. I threatened that if it was still there when we got home, I was going to go in the back door. Trust.

I mean, those things are huge, like the size of my index finger. My stomach is churning right now just thinking about them. Seriously.

So, please understand the BRAVERY, COURAGEOUSNESS, and all around DISREGARD FOR MY LIFE that I displayed while taking the following pictures.

Behold, a very large spider, with his bundled up prey, on its web in our back yard.

That’s as close as I was willing to go. And I was lightheaded after taking these. If you click on the pictures, you can see the pictures larger. I don’t really want to, but you might, haha.

It’s amusing, because I worked at a pet store for about 3 years in high school/college. I had to count crickets to sell for people’s reptiles, but that didn’t bother me. We sold hissing cockroaches, but I actually thought those were cool.

Also, Neal said insects freak him out a little, too. But he said he’s less freaked out when I’m around since I go batshit crazy. So, I’m glad I can make the hubby feel manly.

So, last night, we shot down to Baltimore right after work. After mucho stress trying to find parking, we managed to find our friends tailgating outside of the stadium about an hour before game time. We hung out for a little before heading into the stadium for kickoff.

Here’s the deal – my only experience with professional sports is going to baseball games. So, I guess that’s what I was sort of expecting. WOW, was I off, haha.

Attending a pro football game is much more intense, much more rowdy and much less kid-friendly. I realized the difference before we even got to the stadium. And when the Ravens came out onto the field? The whole place erupted. We were still finding the way to our section inside the stadium when this happened, and the sound was deafening.

Our seats were banging. They were season tickets, in the second section. I couldn’t believe what a view we had. One thing Neal and I both found interesting was that the field looked a lot smaller than on TV. Weird.

I’m not going to post pictures of Neal’s coworker and his wife, only because I didn’t ask their permission because I’m too embarrassed to admit I have a blog, hahahaha. But they are super cool people and we had A LOT of fun with them. Plus, it was incredibly sweet of them to ask us to the game. These were $110 seats!

I think this was the huddle right before the QB threw an interception for a Ravens touchdown. It was like one of the first plays (if not the first, I can’t remember). The stadium freaked out. These Ravens fans are for real. Here’s a pic of the touchdown celebration.

And then the male cheerleaders ran out on the field and waved these flags around.

Speaking of cheerleaders, T (we’ll use that abbreviation for Neal’s coworker’s wife) and I were pretty excited to watch the cheerleaders. They were really entertaining! And so tiny! I mean, these girls looked short and petite. They were so cute.

I know, I’m kinda ridiculous.

So anyway, I tried to follow the game as best as I could. It’s easier to watch on TV because the announcers will say right away what the penalty is and if they got a first down or not. So I had to bug Neal a lot to figure out everything what was going on.

We seriously had such a great time. I really paid for it today, though, because I was EXHAUSTED at work. But I’m so glad we said we’d go and it was really sweet of our companions to ask us. I told T to kiss up to her boss some more so maybe he’ll give us more tickets.

Anyway, I’ve been back to cooking lately. We’re been busy this summer and I got lax about cooking, but I’m trying to lost a little chunk, so I’m trying to make some good, healthy meals for Neal and I. I have some Weight Watchers cookbooks that I get ideas from.

Recently, I made some spicy shrimp over pasta. I have to say, it was a little to spicy for me, but Neal really liked it.

I sauteed them with some garlic, red pepper flakes and wine. I’m such a wimp, because my mouth was really on fire after eating these. Neal thought I was ridiculous.

Sunday, my grandparents came over to visit and check out our bedroom. I made a peach cobbler using local peaches. It was a really good cobbler. It doesn’t keep very well, but was very good the day I made it.

And then this week, I made some chicken and mushrooms with a wine sauce (I cook with wine a lot, don’t I? HAHA). Again, it was really good. I love baby bella mushrooms.

Yum!

I’m not really sure if I’m losing any chunk, but I’m working on it, haha.

Tomorrow, I get to sit on a golf course all day with my mom drinking beer. My company participates in a charity golf tournament every year and my mom and I always help work it. We have to sit at one of the holes and collect money for closest to the pin. I look forward to this every year. Tomorrow’s going to be the best day ever, haha.

Anyway,  I was sitting on the couch watching TV after I got home from work tonight, waiting for the meatloaf to finish baking. Neal walked in the door and the first thing he said was “I smashed the shit out of my fingers today.” (I know, we talk so sophisticated, don’t we?)

Anyway, he held up his hand and showed me this:

And I threw up in my mouth a little.

I have this weird fascination with blood/wounds. I mean, I want to see, but then I also get that horrible sick stomach churning feeling and then I gag. Dry heave. Ugh.

First of all, I told him I don’t want to hear about it until after dinner. I had to eat meatloaf. With ketchup. And he also isn’t allowed to touch me with that hand, HAHA.

OK, so after dinner he explained that he was at the gym this morning and his fingers got pinched between one of those big disk weights and a bar. And then I proceeded to dry heave again. Neal said that was the same reaction he got from the front desk employee when he asked her for bandaids.

Anyway, we hope nothing is broken. Neal said he didn’t make a sound when he smashed his fingers. I told him I would have screamed my head off. He’s so stoic.

Dry heave!! GROSS!!

I’m changing the topic here, because I can’t handle the grossness anymore.

We had hail damage to our siding, so we are getting new siding. It’s just about done now, but here’s what it looked like halfway through.

The top is the old. The bottom is the new. I love it!

We also bought new outdoor lights. I completely despised our old ones.

Yay!

Anyway, that’s pretty much it for now. Neal needs help changing his dressings, HAHA, so I’m off to try and not throw up all over him. Have a great day!

I’m mad at Neal because I don’t think he got a picture of Herbie’s best side, but oh well. I do have some pictures, and of course the memories.

Please excuse the outfit. I was definitely poorly dressesd for pony-petting.

No, actually, Neal and I were at his aunt’s farm for a very important and cool reason. It was his grandmother’s 80th birthday. Grandmom Eileen is such a sweetie. And boy can she cook. The first time I ate at her house, she made a salad with goat cheese and walnuts and the main course was a bacon-wrapped filet. Seriously. It was just Neal and I and his grandparents, and she made this amazing meal. Of course, to her it was nothing fancy. I loved it.

Anyway, the party was a really nice afternoon with family.

We were there for Eileen, but Aunt Judy and Uncle Ed’s farm offered too many distractions for me. I’m like 10 years old when it comes to animals. I want to talk to them and pet them and squeeze them. I realize I have issues. I’m working on them.

Oh Herbie, how I miss your felt nose and big watery eyes. Come live with me.  Please?

Look, I even got Neal’s grandmother to pet the pony with me!

Awwww!

Yes, I know I posted mostly animal pictures from a family party. Well, it’s my blog and I’ll do what I want, haha.

Anyway, it was a nice day and I think Eileen had a great time.

I hope to go back to the farm soon. I asked Aunt Judy if she would adopt me, and she just kind of laughed politely.

So…. I’ll take that as a maybe?