Feels Like Summer...

Saturday afternoon Joe and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful sunny/warm weather we were having an head into Exclesior.

We had lunch at the 318 Cafe (highly recommend), a few Excelsior beers, and walked around looking at the different shops. We also walked down to the Port to see how much ice was left on Lake Minnetonka. It's getting close to being open! That gives me hope that summer...or at least spring is around the corner! :)

Although, it wasn't anything extremely thrilling... these are the kinds of weekends I love.

Quick Trip: Chicago

I had to head to Chicago for a social media conference for work for two days and Linds decided to join me. I absolutely love Chicago and was looking forward to a quick trip.

Lindsay had never been there before so we took advantage of the hotel being in the perfect location to venture out. We were staying at the Hard Rock Hotel and were within walking distance to some of Chicago's best sights. We hit up the Navy Pier, John Hancock Observatory, Millenium Park, Buckingham Fountain, and spent some time on the Magnificent Mile shopping. We ate dinner at Pizzeria Uno, hands down some of the best pizza I've had in my life. We even had a celeb run-in...well, 'trashy' celeb run-in....Michael Lohan, Lindsay Lohan's dad.

I never get bored with The Bean...

 Navy Pier...

View from Observatory
 

It was a jam packed two day trip! Now a few days at work and then it's time to hop back on a plane... this time for vacation and some place with a beach :)

The Not So Great Dog Park Learnings...

With the gloomy weather we've been having for the last week, Gordie has been struggling with his boredom. The constant rain is making it difficult for him to go out and enjoy the outdoors and to help burn off his unlimited supply of energy.

Saturday, however, we had SUN and decent temperatures in the 40's. This meant we were off to the dog park to spend a few hours so Gordie could get in some play time. This play quickly came to a halt within 10 minutes of arriving at the park.

We got to the park and were immediately greeted by about 5 dogs, nothing unusual here... until one of the dogs, a giant Mastiff, decided he wasn't Gordie's biggest fan. Realistically, we should have realized something wasn't right when Gordie had his ears down and tail between his legs. Normally he prances right in tail wagging and is happy to see everyone. Looking back, his immediate reaction was not normal.

The Mastiff went after Gordie a bit right away. Then walked away. Within a minute, he was back at going after Gordie. I quickly shielded Gordie as his 67lbs was no comparison to the 150+lb Mastiff. Thankfully, Gordie made it out of there injury free. I on the other hand ended up getting bit and having a slight battle wound. Better me than Gord.

I understand that not all dogs are going to get along. It's a way of life. However, if your dog is not dog friendly or people friendly, KEEP IT MUZZLED or AT HOME! It has no business being in public to roam free with other animals/people that it could potentially harm. You know if your dog has aggression issues or doesn't tolerate other dogs. This is not something that is learned overnight.

The most frustrating part of this wasn't the dog itself, it was the owner. A dog learns behavior from the owner. I'm a firm believer in this. If you're going to have a dog, especially a breed that is labeled an 'aggressive' breed, you better be prepared to properly teach this dog how to behave. This woman, had NOTHING to say about the incident. She did not once try to call her dog or remove him from the situation. She stood there and seemed oblivious to it all, even though she was literally 5 feet from the situation.

Many of you may know, I have no problems with confrontation or expressing my thoughts. I started to do so after all was said and done but after a few brief comments, I had to just leave. The tears were about to start flowing and I was not about to show that to someone that clearly had no emotion on the situation. So, we left the park. It wasn't until we got to the car that I realized I was actually bit a little harder than I thought. I was so focused on Gordie and how awful of a person this woman was that I hadn't noticed the blood all over my thumb.

Dog ownership is a privilege, if you're not able to provide the best environment or teachings to your dog...do NOT get one. My guess is this dog has done similar things before and has never been taught that it's not appropriate. I'm fearful for what would have happened if a child had been at the park that day or if it were a smaller dog this dog went after. I have since wrote a letter to the City of Eden Prairie to inform them of this incident. That way if this dog does something else in the future to someone else or another dog, at least they were made aware that may not have been the first time.

We have also since switched to a new dog park. I do not want to get all political or insult people, however, this new dog park requires a yearly membership. I'm hoping that the annual fee will keep the class of people/dogs that attend to a higher standard.

After heading to the new park, Gordie was finally able to get rid of some of his energy. We were also happy to see that he was not shy around dogs after everything that happened. He quickly ran up to the first dogs that he came across at the new park which happened to be two pit bulls. Which I might add were clearly raised properly...

I do not care what kind of breed of dog you have or what the breed is labeled, if you do not teach a dog how to behave and socialize them properly, they will not know how to interact with other animals and people. Take some time to teach them how to behave...

Best Purchase

Our vacuum broke about a month ago and since then we've been using Joe's parents vacuum since they are in Naples until May. This weekend, however, Dyson's went on sale. We decided it was time to jump on the Dyson train and see what all the excitement was about.

We're both clean people and the house is always clean. We assumed that because we vacuum often that our carpets were also clean. After using the new Dyson, we were slightly grossed out by how much extra was pulled from the carpets that the previous vacuums did not pull up.

We now both agree that outside of Gordie, this is by far our best joint purchase to date. We'll never own another brand after giving Dyson a chance.

Excelsior Brewery Date Night

To my surprise, Joe planned an awesome date night. I'm not saying he doesn't normally plan great date nights but he usually doesn't get too creative. haha. This time he bought us tickets to an Beer Dinner event at Pairings Food & Wine Market. The sponsor was one of our new found favorite breweries, Excelsior Brewing.

The menu for the 5 course meal was:

 

Wedge Salad with Crispy Prosciutto, Avocado, Tomato, and local St. Pete's Bleu Cheese Dressing
Paired with Excelsior Pale Ale

Shrimp Three Ways:  Sauteéd with a Poblano-Queso Fresco Polenta Cake; Beer Bloody Mary Shrimp Cheviche Shooters; and Excelsior Beer Battered with a Pickled Jalapeno Aioli

Paired with Excelsior Blonde Ale

Grilled Sausage from Clancey's Market in Linden Hills with Onions, Potatoes and Peppers
Paired with Excelsior IPA

Foie Gras Meatballs with Porcini Mushroom-Sherry Sauce
Paired with Excelsior Red Ale

Savory Triple Cream Brie Cheesecake with local Ames Honey, Lavender and Candied Bacon
Paired with Excelsior Bittershlappe Brown

 

Delicious food. Delicious beer. Great guy. All lead up to a great date night.

 

We'll definitely be trying some of their other Wine & Beer Dinner events that they put on at Pairings.

 

 

 

MN Spring?!?

It's getting to be closer to the end of April end... we are not yet experiencing Spring. Last year at this time we were in the 70's, we're currently still sitting in the 30's. What's the deal Mother Nature?! I will say that this is making Joe and I even more excited for our Florida vacation in a few weeks. One way or another we will be feeling warm temps and sunshine...

I guess one person doesn't seem to mind the snow that continues to fall still.

Adventures in Babysitting

Joe had volunteered for us to go babysit his niece and nephew Saturday afternoon/evening so his sister and her husband could go enjoy some time away. Let me just start off by saying how much I adore these kids so to me this was not a problem. However, I now know for certain that Joe and I are completely fine with not having children in the future.

We decided that we'd bring Gordie along. Joe's sister has a fenced in backyard and a dog, Jasper, for Gordie to play with. While that sounded like a good idea in theory, it quickly backfired. We realized that although Gordie had a playmate, he would NOT play outside unless he could see Joe or I. Translation: he didn't want to be outside without us. So, the fenced in backyard idea to leave him to play didn't really work like planned.

With Gordie wanting to be in the house with us, that meant we had two kids, two dogs, and a cat to watch. I'm not sure we were prepared for this! Haha.

Thankfully, the kids were the least of our worries. Gordie was the maniac. He was so excited to play with the kids and Jasper that he just would not rest. He then also noticed Boxcar, the cat. I don't think he quite understood that the cat really didn't want to play. But Gordie insisted and followed Boxcar around alllll afternoon long.

We watched Scooby Doo for what seemed like hours. We read some books, colored on the fort, played hide & seek, and tag. Joe and I were exhausted. The kids, not so much.

After only doing this for about 5 hours, it was safe to say we were amazed at how people do this 24 hours a day, every day. I think it's safe to say we're OK with being an Uncle/Aunt and not Mom/Dad. Kudos to those super parents out there, you have one tough job.

Mr. Gordie

One thing I've noticed about Gordie lately is he wants to be everywhere I am. While this isn't really something extremely new since he's always been known to follow Joe or I around. Gordie is taking it to a whole new level lately though.

I got up to grab coffee and turned around to this...

Clearly he wanted to sit in my chair and play on the computer too.

One thing is for certain, he is a Momma's Boy. And I'm guessing it has nothing to do with me babying him...all the time. Haha. Oops.

Hunting

Joe took Gordie out to the Caribou Gun Club to get a little more experience on birds to keep his training fresh. They were out there for the morning/afternoon and had the fields to themselves. Joe said Gordie did great for his first time out alone. The other times have been with other people/dogs around. This time Gordie & Joe got to experience it by themselves, which helped Gordie with the distractions.

He must have had fun because he came home tired. Which made for one happy me! Ha! A tired Gordie is a well behaved Gordie! And we all know this dog does not tire easily.

Easter

This Easter Joe and I spent at home, just the two of us. With neither of us getting any days off around the Easter holiday at work we decided we'd skip traveling and stay home. Normally that would mean we'd be with his family if we weren't traveling to mine but all of his family was in Naples. So... that left the two of us.

Gordie was the only one in the house that received an Easter basket. Lucky dog.

We also got this cute card from Joe's niece Iris.

We were up early and did some housework. Then decided to take a drive around Lake Minnetonka to admire some of the outrageously beautiful homes on the lake. After a few hours of driving around we headed home to Gordie and spent the rest of the day catching up on TV shows and eating pizza. Not exactly what you'd call a traditional Easter Sunday but it worked for us this year :)