Thursday Ten: Confessing My Love for Sharpies Edition

1. I had to go to a meeting the other day. One that might possibly require me to take notes. I decided to stop at Target on my way – pick up a cute notebook and some pens. I snagged a pack of black Sharpie pens. I have a love of Sharpie markers. I have a cup on my desk that is packed to the gills (if cups HAD gills) with markers. Unfortunately, the fine tip Sharpie markers still bleed through paper. THESE PENS DON’T. I’m in love. Next? Sharpie pencils. I’ll have to come up with an excuse to buy those. Anyone need me to take some notes?

2. Do you ever have one of those days where all you want to do is pull your hair out and wonder if you are speaking some nonsensical language because it seems no one seems to hear or understand you and instead does the opposite of what you are trying to say? Yeah. On THOSE days, the answer is to meet a friend for dinner at a Mexican restaurant – eat many chips with lots of salsa, maybe gorge on enchiladas, and indulge in conversation that has nothing to do with whether or not someone is hogging the couch.

3. While we were out of town over the weekend, we had the dog groomed. To account for the splint that matted all the fur on his leg for the past month… they shaved him down pretty close. It’s… not cute. We know it will grow back – but our furry fluffy pup? Gone.

4. Also gone is our pup who was starting to learn and obey commands and he was replaced by a dog who is seemingly on an invisible pixi stick drip. That is one ACTIVE puppy. He’s learning to fetch, though. A way to have fun and burn off some of the sillies… but whoa.

5. Tuesday was Day 365 of my 365 Project. And yeah, I just started all over again yesterday.

6. Upon completing the 365, I decided to set the whole shebang to music so I needed some new tunes. Recommended to me? “Happiness” by the Weepies and “We Are Okay” by Joshua Radin. Both very welcome happy additions to my iTunes playlist.

7. Speaking of iTunes… Ping. Are you in or are you out? I love me some social media but I buy a lot of music. I don’t know that I want everyone to know when the spirit moves me and I’m downloading something from the soundtrack to the musical “Oklahoma!”.

8. Last week’s Project Runway auf’ing… Okay – I saw that coming. I knew there was no way they would send Gretchen and her giant bag of crazy home just yet, but WHOA NELLY. What was that? And I realize it’s just a television show but I sat on my couch wanting to throw stuff at her. I’m mature like that.

9. The temperatures are supposed to drop to the 70s this weekend. I AM SO EXCITED. The summer humidity isn’t a friend of mine (my hair doesn’t like it either). When I woke up this morning and saw that the leaves had started to fall from our little tree in the front yard I may have gotten a little giddy. Okay. A LOT giddy.

10. Random question: If money was no object and you could go ANYWHERE on a dream vacation, where would you go?

Thursday Ten: Away and Back Super Speedy Edition

1. I left at noon yesterday to venture to Northern Michigan to visit Rachel who was in town for the Cherry Festival. Less than 24 hours later, I was on the road headed back home. Totally worth it. It was fun to visit with friends, be some place different, NOT COOK DINNER (festival lemonade and pretzel for dinner! Yum!), and just relax and chat. Even running on about four hours of sleep, I’m kind of recharged. This is a good thing.

2. I returned home to the land of house training a puppy. The girls – those lovely children of mine who begged for a puppy – aren’t as much help as they SWORE they would be… but I’d anticipated that when we agreed to go ahead and get the pup. I do not, under any circumstances, take part in the shoveling of doggy…stuff. That is a job that belongs to pretty much everyone but me.

3. Despicable Me comes out in theaters tomorrow. I was pretty thrilled to have received free passes to see this with my fam – and it’s a fantastic movie. The 3D effects weren’t overwhelming as they are sometimes – which is good because I’m not normally a fan of 3D.

4. Music this week? Uh, the soundtrack of “Despicable Me”. Nah, I didn’t receive this for free – I paid for it – but I really like what Pharrell did with it. It’s kind of a fun (yet KIDSAFE) soundtrack. Pretty awesome.

5. Musically, I also picked up Joshua Radin’s “I’d Rather Be With You”, as that is the song my guitar teacher picked this week. I’d never heard this song before, and I like it – I look forward to checking out more of his music.

6. Strangest addiction of the week? The Boggle app for the iPhone. For just under two bucks, I can Boggle to my heart’s content. I’m not very good at Boggle, but it’s addicting.

7. I have started reading The Girl Who Played with Fire – and I find myself moving very slowly through it – afraid I won’t love it as much as its predecessor. Does anyone else do that when reading a sequel?

8. While at the festival last night, I was craving an elephant ear and was able to resist its charms and eat a slightly less damaging meal. But I will get at least one elephant ear this summer because I LOVE THEM AND THEY BELONG IN MY BELLY. What is your favorite amusement park/carnival food?

9. Do you know how hard it is to not talk about puppies all the time when it seems like 80% of my life these days involves watching a puppy for signs he is about to pee on the living room carpet? I’m really not wanting to be a pet blogger (I don’t need no stinkin’ niche), but it’s just what life is these days. Soon, I hope to leave my house on a more frequent basis again.

10. The weather in Michigan has been insanely hot this week. Humid and hot and gross and yucky. Yes, yucky. I would take our meteorologists on the local news more seriously if they started legitimately employing “yucky” as the descriptor of our summer weather. Today, there’s a break from our 90+ degree weather. But mother nature has replaced stifling temps with… rain. Yucky.