As I mentioned yesterday, I had a great weekend with my dad. And then on Monday, after he left, I spent the afternoon with some friends grilling out and enjoying the weather. I brought Ryman over as well, since one of my friends had his two Dauchshunds. Meeting each other was a little iffy, but once everyone settled in, I think they had a fun day playing! And Ryman has pretty much been out cold ever since…
Also, as promised, I have a DELICIOUS margarita recipe for you. In fact, it is a WATERMELON MARAGARITA. HELLO. I know it’s not the prettiest picture, but that’s life, guys.
Watermelon Margaritas
3 cups watermelon
2 cups tequila
1/2 cup lime juice
1/2 cup orange juice
3 tablespoons sugar
large pinch of salt
Blend it all up, and pour it over ice!! You could also blend it with ice, however watermelon has so much water in it, that even blending it with ice doesn’t make it very “slushy,” so I recommend just skipping the blended ice and serving it on the rocks. Garnish with a lime and/or watermelon wedge!
This weekend, I road-tripped myself down to Nashville LIKE A BOSS. The hubs was out of town on a fun, long weekend, so I decided to bring the Pupster Ryman along with me for the ride. She loves playing with my in-laws’ mini-doxie, Minnie Pearl. While this photo is a bit deceiving, since it took her TWO HOURS to settle in, I just have to say how much I love this little bugger and how much I miss her. She’s staying the week with the in-laws and Ms. Pearl since we are planning to drive back down again on Easter weekend.
Once she arrived, she settled in quite happily to the sunshine of Tennessee, and her and Ms. Pearl got right to playing…
Nothing better than sunshine and barking at squirrels…Two little rascals.
Meanwhile, I was in town for a Chapter Leadership Conference at Vanderbilt. Basically, all the presidents of the Vandy chapters across the country get together to share ideas and learn more about how to be ambassadors to our chapters. It’s a great time!! They put us up in a brand new hotel right across the street from my old college dorms. I stared out my window for a solid ten minutes thinking about all the wonderful times I had in those tall, ugly buildings. Junior and senior year… OH. Cue: I wish I could go back to college.
Oh, Towers.
The night before my graduation, my mom just could not understand why I wouldn’t want to stay in her hotel room instead of in my ugly dorm room, which had already been stripped of just about everything except my bedding, a lamp, and my graduation gown. I just couldn’t leave! I didn’t want to leave!! I was happy to graduate, but it was by far not a very joyous occasion. I was a “late bloomer” as far as college is concerned. Coming in as a naive freshman, it too me a year to get my bearings and another year to settle in. I mean, the first two years were great, but the SECOND TWO YEARS were AMAZING. And they were spent in those high-rise brick boxes pictured above.
The admissions building. The first building I remember seeing on my very first visit to VU.
Being back on campus this weekend felt so special. I worked for the university for the first five years of my career. I took for granted being there every single day. It was my work place more than my alma mater. Now that I’ve taken some space, coming back feels like I am truly revisiting the wonderful place of my 18-22-year-old-self, and I just can’t describe it. If you loved your college experience, then I think you know what I mean. Anyway, cheers to nostalgia, college, and the best of memories. I know that more amazing memories are coming down the road, but man, nothing will ever be quite like those four years. Am I right, or am I right?
Puppy sleeps are the best sleeps. I swear, our pup Ryman has two modes – hyper crazy and sound alseep. She sleeps A LOT. And my husband informs me that she is currently a “teenager” in dog years which totally makes sense. She would honestly sleep until noon if we let her.
Here she was this morning when my hubster tried to get her up to go outside…
“Are you serious, bro?”
She spends every night under the covers, curled up by our feet or against our chests/backs. And to get her to go out in the morning, we literally have to carry her all the way downstairs and force her out the backdoor, or she would just run back to the bed. The minute she comes in, she runs straight to her bed in her crate rather than even bothering to go back upstairs to the bedroom.
I seriously can’t handle the cuteness, which is why I don’t mind too much.
And don’t think she doesn’t sleep all day or something – most evenings, as we are watching TV or working on our computers, she is curled up asleep in our laps. Bedtime is really just carrying her outside, making her go to the bathroom, and then putting her in bed. Moral of the story here is I LOVE OUR PUPSTER!!
She’s a cuddler forever and ever – and seems to have been made just for us…
I am writing this post because when I googled it yesterday, it appeared that I was perhaps the first person to ever google this. I did, however, find a post on “How to clean spider trap glue off your cat.” I took a few tips from it, added a few of my own methods, and now I have a step by step tutorial for you, if this ever happens to you.
1. Don’t freak out. Don’t scold the dog or act scared, or she will get scared. If your puppy manages to find a spider trap that you didn’t know you still had in your house, she will probably end up with some SERIOUS glue on her paws, and then her face. Don’t freak out.
2. Vegetable oil. Put on an apron if you don’t want oil on your clothes. Set your puppy in the sink, and gently rub her down with vegetable oil, especially the areas with a lot of sticky stuff. Try to let it all soak in a little, and just keep petting her to keep her calm.
3. Loofa + Shampoo. Sure, you can use a wash cloth or something, but I think the loofa helps pull on the sticky stuff a little. Gently put a little shampoo on a loofa, and giver her another good rub down to get the oil up.
4. Rinse. Gently, calmly, rinse your puppy off. Poor thing will be freaked out. But wrap her in a towel. I also recommend tossing a small towel in the dryer for 10min to warm it up, and wrap her with that once she’s been toweled off. You’ll end up with this, but she will be clean:
So, January has already brought something pretty exciting with it! Jonathan and I have talked for a while about getting a dog, when we might want one, what type we might want. Well, after a bit of research and browsing…we went for it! We found a sweet mini daschund puppy from a sweet Ohio family, and we brought her home! Since we’ve had her, it’s been utterly bitter cold in Columbus, so we’ve been off of work and snuggling for days. We are already both completely in love with her.
So meet Ryman. She was born on November 1, just a few hours short of being a hallo”weener” (can’t take credit for that…the previous owner said it). So she’s only 2 months old! We’ve snapped several photos on our phone, and I just had to share with y’all. I’m sure there will be more in the future!
