I made crock pot coq au vin for tomorrow (our first wedding anniversary). Yum.

Today, Ollie and I went to the school where I used to teach for a visit. He was spectacularly well behaved. Since I knew all the kids would be dressed up, I also dressed in costume. Who can guess what I went as?

I thought it was so cute that Ollie was cuddling all his toys that I took some pictures. A couple minutes later, when I looked at the pictures, I realized he was also cuddling one of Ben's shoes, that had definitely been out of his reach. My puppy's so tricky! I thought it was so funny that I called Ben (who was away at conference) to tell him about it.

Ollie LOVES his stretches.

After a long day, I decided that instead of going out and having fun and wings with friends, I would stay him and eat toast with melted cheese and marinara sauce. It was satisfying, I suppose.

Ollie and Darla love each other, even when they're not allowed to play (because of Ollie's leg). This is Ollie saying "Happy 1st birthday, Darla! I got you a kiss!"

Ollie is cute when he crawls into the cave under my desk at work, but less cute when he lays on the power switch on the power strip and my computer turns off when I'm in the middle of doing something.

They didn't have the right size of free GoLite shoes for me on pick up day, but I got them today, and I really like them...

We remembered (in time!) to put our trash out! Hallelujah!

p.s. That's not all ours. There are 3 apartments and our landlords' house all included in our building...

Ollie had almost chewed through part of his leash already weeks ago when we started having to attach him to the couch 24/7 because of his broken leg. We've just been waiting for it to break all the way. And today, as he played with his food dispensing ball, we suddenly noticed that he had managed to get across the room. Ben yelled "FREEDOM!" and we both laughed. Then we connected Ollie back to the couch with his old climbing rope leash. No way that one's gonna break.

Then we went to celebrate the birthday of our favorite little two year old! (Look at her devotion to that cupcake inside an ice cream cone. She is NOT gonna let go of that one.) H has appeared on this blog several times in the past couple years.... If I have the energy later, I'll link to previous posts so you can see how little she was.

We've gone generic.

p.s. I made caramel apples today a lot. No new burns. No mess. Good friends. Good times. I didn't take pictures there, but someone else did, I think, so I'll try to get some evidence.

In preparation of making caramel apples all day tomorrow, I decided to burn my finger today. I put a plastic container of frosting on a plate in the microwave for too long, and the plastic melted, and then I took the plate out of the microwave, safely, and then decided about 30 seconds later that'd it would be fun to pick up the melted plastic container to inspect it. Of course, molten plastic and icing spilled onto my fingers, especially this, very painful pinky. But I'm okay. Really, I am.

Ollie met a cute little version of himself today. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of him trying to eat Chili's head.

Closed down the outdoor recreation area Ben is in charge of as part of his assistantship....

These ladies got creative about moving the dock.

Is this an advertisement for the GoLite shoes all of Ben's employees (including me) were given for free?

M in the "Future Beach" (Yes. That's what that silly little kayak thing is called. We had some giggles about it.)

Ollie gets a pumpkin puree ice cube in his bowl of rice and chicken. The pumpkin puree ice cube may or may not be the highlight of his day. He doesn't love his bland diet, but hopefully, it'll make his tummy feel better...

The thinner I slice the pieces of cake, the more times a day I can eat it!

Not sure what happened today, but this is what I looked like.

HUGE stuffed zucchini. Very yummy.

Ben made Guinness Chocolate cake tonight. I helped a little.

p.s. This cake is AMAZING (though Ben is disappointed that it doesn't taste like Guinness).

Ollie went to the vet today to become not quite the man he could have been, so we honored him with our Thursday night dinner theme:

potato balls
matzo ball soup
Ball brand mason jars (we always use them, but they fit!)
Rice crispy balls
Swedish meatballs (Ben had just been warned that they were very hot.)
and mozzarella balls....

Everyone had a ball! (ha ha ha)

MOST CUDDLY PUPPY EVER.

baked breaded zucchini and jalapeno poppers. pretty yum, but not the best ever. it was my first attempt. what can you do?

I wanted Ben to pay attention to me, so I scheduled it into his calendar.

Tried to get a good picture of the gorgeous sky on our drive from Cape Cod to Buzzard's Bay. A weekend of sad events.

Oh no! The ribs are DROWNING!!! (We finally made the ribs we got in our last share of beef from our CSA. They were yummy!)

Have you ever seen a zucchini this big?

Lunch made me feel like I live in France. Bread and brie and bread and nutella.

Ollie and I cuddle A LOT these days.

This is what I worked on for over 10 hours today. It only looks good because of Ben, though.

Ollie got his stitches out today, and so no more cone! Here he is being cute in his crate and feeling better :) Also - he lost two teeth today! I wonder if the tooth fairy will show up. He even has a pillow for her to put money under!

At about 11:30 last night, a huge ball of fluid formed on Ollie's shoulder and I rushed him to the doggie ER 'cause I was so nervous. They drained it, but said it was pretty normal and to let them know if it got a lot bigger or seemed to hurt him. It was scary and relatively expensive, and I'm glad he's okay.

Good long day of getting school work done at friends' house. Ollie found himself stuck under the table a couple times and needed help sliding out without getting his cone caught. It was cute.

Here's the self-portrait I took before Ben went away for the weekend on his sea kayaking class.

Ollie already misses him.

But Ollie and I stayed with friends tonight, so that was nice. Here's A cutting apart (or playing with) the chicken I picked up at the farm today.